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AOL Builds New IE-Based Browser

Posted by michael on from the mozilla-deemed-harmful dept.

jfruhlinger writes "According to News.com.com.com, America Online is preparing to release a free AOL-branded browser that is 'based on Microsoft's Internet Explorer technology.' The browser will be available to users who don't have AOL as their ISP. I admit that I find this development baffling -- not only does AOL already own a browser, but why on earth would a non-AOL user want to use an AOL-branded version of IE?"

12 of 360 comments (clear)

  1. How can I put this nicely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Okay, I can't.

    AOL is for dumb users. IE is for dumb users. This is a perfect match.

    (This will probably get me modded as flamebait, but in the old days of Slashdot, it wouldn't.)

    1. Re:How can I put this nicely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or worse yet, over AOL for Broadband using an MSN branded DSL.

    2. Re:How can I put this nicely by Black.Shuck · · Score: 5, Funny

      You pawed through a dumpster to get an AOL CD instead of downloading 5MB of a Firefox installation?

      That's hardcore, baby. :D

    3. Re:How can I put this nicely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      +1 Moron

      What the hell are you doing at Slashdot?

      Fitting in.

    4. Re:How can I put this nicely by Simonetta · · Score: 5, Funny


      Suxs to be you...

      I'm sorry, but this phrase won't parse in my language translator. The equivalent phrases that I get are (in English):

      "Here's to your success!"
      "You are creating a vacuum with your mouth"

      Since the phase has no preceeding or subsequent sentences, it can't be matched against any cultural context.

      Could you please clarify as to which of the above choices this expression refers?

      Thank you,
      -A person who speaks a language that you've never heard of, living in a place unknown to you or any of your teachers.

    5. Re:How can I put this nicely by conan776 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hmmm... if you rearrange "MSN IE DSL AOL" you get
      "ALL IS DEMONS"
      "SOLD ME SNAIL"
      "ON MS DIES ALL"

      --
      "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -- Philip K. Dick
  2. If closing it is anything like trying to cancel... by joseph+schmo · · Score: 5, Funny

    *user clicks close button*

    [POPUP:] Thank you for being an AOL Browser user! I'm sorry you have decided to stop using it. I'm going to go ahead and leave it open for a few more minutes, for FREE.

    *shows [OK] button only*

    ermmm...

  3. Re:What's next? by HoneyBunchesOfGoats · · Score: 5, Funny

    AOL OS

    Based on Microsoft Windows technology.

  4. Here's why: by gulfan · · Score: 5, Funny
    why on earth would a non-AOL user want to use an AOL-branded version of IE?

    CUZ TEH INTERNET IS SO MUCH DIF3RENT WHEN UR VEIWNG IT WIT AOL!!1! OMG LOL

  5. AOL browser rocks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    NOW I CAN AUTOMATICALLY POST IN ALL CAPS!

    but the damn slashdot filter seems to know I'm using AOL.

  6. Re:If closing it is anything like trying to cancel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've had a really bad experience trying to cancel AOL some years ago.

    I don't know whether the person on the phone accidentally gave me the wrong number or if they were trying to throw a hint at me. I called their customer service center and asked to cancel the account. She fought tooth and nail to get me not to cancel (of course) and finally gave me a phone number to call in order to cancel. Okay, but there was one problem when I called.

    "To talk live to a hot, horny girl, press 1."

    I have no idea whether she gave me the wrong number (I read it back about three times to confirm) or she was hinting to me to "go fuck myself" because I wanted to cancel.

  7. Old AOL joke: by mrbcs · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Think of the Internet as a Highway." There it is again. Some clueless fool talking about the "Information Superhighway." They don't know didley about the net. It's nothing like a superhighway. That's a rotten metaphor. Suppose the metaphor ran in the other direction. Suppose the highways were like the net. . . A highway hundreds of lanes wide. Most with pitfalls for potholes. Privately operated bridges and overpasses. No highway patrol. A couple of rent-a-cops on bicycles with broken whistles. 500 member vigilante posses with nuclear weapons. A minimum of 237 on ramps at every intersection. No signs. Wanna get to Ensenada? Holler out the window at a passing truck to ask directions. Ad hoc traffic laws. Some lanes would vote to make use by a single-occupant- vehicle a capital offense on Monday through Friday between 7:00 and 9:00. Other lanes would just shoot you without a trial for talking on a car phone. AOL would be a giant diesel-smoking bus with hundreds of ebola victims on board throwing dead wombats and rotten cabbage at the other cars, most of which have been assembled at home from kits. Some are built around 2.5 horsepower lawnmower engines with a top speed of nine miles an hour. Others burn nitrogylcerin and idle at 120. No license plates. World War II bomber nose art instead. Terrifying paintings of huge teeth or vampire eagles. Bumper mounted machine guns. Flip somebody the bird on this highway and get a white phosphorus grenade up your tailpipe. Flatbed trucks cruise around with anti-aircraft missile batteries to shoot down the traffic helicopter. Little kids on tricycles with squirtguns filled with hydrochloric acid switch lanes without warning. NO OFFRAMPS. None. Now that's the way to run an Interstate Highway system.

    --
    I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.