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AOL Plans A Standalone Browser
Patik writes "America Online is creating its own standalone browser, aimed at employees who cannot install AOL software at their workstations. The browser will be based on Internet Explorer but will include other features such as tabbed browsing that displays a thumbnail of the page as you pass your cursor over it. The browser will also integrate AOL's media player and will be able to access AOL-only content."
Would somebody please explain how AOL thinks users who can't install the full AOL client on their workstations thanks to sysadmin-imposed policies will be able to get the AOL Browser installed? Whatever policy stands against the AOL client will most likely shoot down this AOL Browser too. PHBs don't want people playing on the Internet during company time, and people are going to be hard pressed to show a business-reason to be accessing the AOL-exclusive entertainment content on company time and resources.
This seems like at face value a project that won't reach its target audience and therefore is doomed to failure.
AOL had a browser. In fact, they had a whole browser company. They chose to run it into the ground, like seemingly everything else they've touched. (Proper respect for at least funding Mozilla development, though)
Now they plan to introduce a bloated IE shell (of which there are already several superior ones) with the intent of allowing their customers access to AOL's premium content. First of all, there is nothing left on AOL that the rest of the world would be particularly interested in. The global, public Internet has already won resoundingly against AOL's private little sanitized domain.
And then they finish off with this bit of idiocy:
Clearly offerring another program to install will solve the "people can't install our software" problem.
Why doesn't AOL at least work on improving their horrible web portal if they're so keen on getting people to access their worthless content? Oh that's right, they did... they made it all flash. How delightfully MODERN!
What a worthless company. I bed Ted Turner still shits his pants daily thinking of the mistake he made merging with them. Everything AOL touches turns to shit.
This is the best joke that I've heard all week. A company that owned Netscape and who manged to run it into the ground is planning on bringing out an IE variant browser.
Why don't they just burn money - it would cut out the middle man.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
Without the obvious payoffs or other leverage from Microsoft to continue using MSIE and its components for their software tools, what other reasons are possible or likely for AOL's motivation in doing such things? After all, AOL owns Netscape and because of that, it has a perfect tool to enable a secure internet experience for their users. Need ActiveX? There are plug-ins that allow ActiveX to work I've heard... never used them but I've heard they exist and they work.
My assumption is that Microsoft has somehow influenced AOL to continue with MSIE dependancy. But I'd rather be able to consider other possibilities as well -- but I cannot think of any. Can you?
So AOL owns netscape. They just did a press release about re-releasing netscape. I cant remember exactlly how to phrase this, but Netscape is built off the same technoogy that mozilla and firefox are right?
So Netscape, mozilla and firefox are available, plus 1/2 a dozen other browsers.
So now AOL is creating a new browser, other then the one used in the AOL applicaiton, other then Netscape, and other then the other browsers that use the same technology, and the ones that exist today?
What is this biazzaro world!?!
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