America Online, Inc: R.I.P.

The company once known as America Online, Inc. is no more.

AOL is dead. Long live AOL (*ahem* AOL LLC). The "LLC" part was really driven by the deal with Google (hey, we're 5% "Not evil" now!). The "AOL" part? Well, it was time...

One other bit of "trivia" news from Q1(-ish :)), along with the price increase for Dial-up members and the move to "AOL Hi-speed" (real Broadband, broadly available), well, all those "3,099 FREE HOURS!!!" offers?

Gone. Finito.

I think any CD offers that are out there will continue to be honored, but the new, new deal is a 90 day money-back trial (or some such).

We're still crapping out lots of CDs (and so it may be hard to tell), but there were some significant shifts in our business practices (finally) in 2005, and those ripples are, as we're seeing, cascading into the marketplace. These changes to the core business are but indicators.

Time will tell if it all plays out as one would hope, if indeed it will be AOL's "third act", but it sure beats standing still while the world passes by...