How Much Did AOL Spend on CDs in the 90s?

[Rob Williams]

As we head even further into our digital age, it seems that optical media is soon to become a thing of the past. If and when it does go the way of the dodo, how are we bound to remember it 10, 20 or 30 years down the road? For many Americans, the first thought to come to mind might contain three simple letters, "A", "O" and "L", and for good reason.

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Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[Optix]

I remember getting at least 5 of their CD's back in the days of dial up. They made great coasters. I'd like to see a company try to market themselves the same way now...

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Wasn't just the USA they spammed... UK got hit pretty hard as well, walking into newsagents and supermarkets, those damn discs were everywhere, in giant boxes, on the front, back, or both sides of magazines... persuading people to get online with them. Funny thing is, most people didn't even know what a modem was, or if they had one, so how could they get online with just a CD? Magic!!

Freeserve did the same spamming tactics. They were originally part of the Dixons group (PCWorld), but was taken over by France Télécom and rebranded as Wanadoo... then later changed to Orange. Oh the joys... back in the days of dialup.... when we paid for access by the minute... then by the hour... then the day.... then flat rate monthly fees for 'unlimited access'... which still charge by the minute.... then finally the real unlimited came out... by which time broadband had already taken over. I remember the first £100+ phone bill received....

 

[Richard Searle]

I am sure a few people turned these into Ninja Stars as I did

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

I am sure a few people turned these into Ninja Stars as I did

hehe I did that too

 

[Juliebean]

Wasn't just the USA they spammed... UK got hit pretty hard as well, walking into newsagents and supermarkets, those damn <a href="http://www.bcduplication.com" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0) ! important; text-decoration: none ! important; cursor: default ! important;">cd duplication fast</a> were everywhere, in giant boxes, on the front, back, or both sides of magazines... persuading people to get online with them. Funny thing is, most people didn't even know what a modem was, or if they had one, so how could they get online with just a CD? Magic!!

Freeserve did the same spamming tactics. They were originally part of the Dixons group (PCWorld), but was taken over by France Télécom and rebranded as Wanadoo... then later changed to Orange. Oh the joys... back in the days of dialup.... when we paid for access by the minute... then by the hour... then the day.... then flat rate monthly fees for 'unlimited access'... which still charge by the minute.... then finally the real unlimited came out... by which time broadband had already taken over. I remember the first £100+ phone bill received....

Yea - those things were everywhere.

 

[OriginalJoeCool]

Wasn't just the USA they spammed... UK got hit pretty hard as well, walking into newsagents and supermarkets, those damn discs were everywhere, in giant boxes, on the front, back, or both sides of magazines... persuading people to get online with them. Funny thing is, most people didn't even know what a modem was, or if they had one, so how could they get online with just a CD? Magic!!

Freeserve did the same spamming tactics. They were originally part of the Dixons group (PCWorld), but was taken over by France Télécom and rebranded as Wanadoo... then later changed to Orange. Oh the joys... back in the days of dialup.... when we paid for access by the minute... then by the hour... then the day.... then flat rate monthly fees for 'unlimited access'... which still charge by the minute.... then finally the real unlimited came out... by which time broadband had already taken over. I remember the first £100+ phone bill received....

When I was around 13, my parents cancelled my internet plan because of crap like that. With the ridiculous "unlimited" plan we had (which allowed you a mere few hours a month) it was easy to accumulate 100's of dollars in overcharges.

That was in the days of Windows 95, Netscape, modems .... All seemed awesome at the time. But in retrospect, Windows 9x would crash if you looked at it funny, modems were slow as snails, and Netscape was, well, better than Internet Explorer.