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AOL to Enter the VoIP Ring
FiveDollarYoBet writes "Looks like AOL is entering the VOIP racket. The service is free but it's really a Skype clone with a copper local number. They're also going to offer an unlimited version for $14.95 a month but you have to make the calls from your computer. It'll be interesting to see if it's more of a IM live chat or a true VoIP. The article also outlines their plans to take on MySpace in the near future."
"It's really a Skype clone on copper" really shouldn't have been included.
Of course, then again, I'm a Wikipedia Editor.
And, of course, I need more negative karma.
You've got Phone Call!!
When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
And once again AOL offers us another paid service any person can spend 15 minutes learning to get absolutely free and legal! Pity time and warner.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
Pi Ran Out
I bet if you want to use this, you're going to have to DL AIM's new "Triton" client (maybe they'll make it work with the older 5.x versions) and the ViewPoint advertising that comes with it.
I can't imagine that AOL would make this a standalone product.
So it will be ad supported, one way or another, if for no other reason than AIM already has ads built in.
TANSTAAFL, unless you block the ads, which the vast majority of the user base has no clue how to do.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
kan u here me know?!? LOLZ!! :::hugs:::
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
AOL has always had a pretty family-oriented image, which was probably to their disadvantage in certain demographics but maybe not entirely in this case. At a time when there's a lot of concern about the so-called dangers of MySpace (child predators, etc), AOL could leverage their family-friendly image to tout a MySpace-like service that is also "family friendly": more safety features to protect children, parental controls for parents, and a number of other features that would score points with concerned parents.
Whether a service like that will get them anywhere near as big as MySpace is anyone's guess, but it would definately take advantage of both the current concern over MySpace's complete openness and AOL's current image. Plus, if the government really does require sites like MySpace to raise their minimum age to 18 and enforce age verification, there will be an entirely new market (12-17 year olds) for a kid-friendly MySpace, one that AOL could fill quite well for the reasons stated above.
AOL Phone = plenty of incoming calls that are mysteriously lost, a staggering number of incoming telemarketing calls that get through to sell you replica watches and internet porn (despite your number being on the national "do not call" list), having to listen to ads before you get to your voicemail, you eventually paying way too much, and intelligent people nolonger taking you seriously.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
The service is free but it's really a Skype clone
You could say that about more or less ANY VoIP-system.
Skype does VoIP, so any VoIP-system is bound to be more or less a clone of it.
duh
You're going to need that unlimited plan to get in touch with tech support
What's with the overuse of fighting metaphors? Seems every third article or so is titled using a metaphor related to fighting. Most commonly it's "X to be the next Y killer?" Maybe some people need spend more time playing competitive video games.
It saddens me that VoIP is going the way that IM went. I want something that will interoperate with everything else --including the traditional telephone network -- transparently. I don't want to have to care whether the person I'm calling uses Skype, or AOL, or Google Talk, or whatever. I just want to pick up my phone (software or hardware) and call them, like I can on the traditional phone network. Why does every new technology seem to degenerate into a mess of competing and deliberately un-interoperable implementations? How long will it be before the hacks of the IM world are repeated, and we end up patching up this mess with complicated multi-protocol client software?
If AOL are starting in on voip, then someone's going to start thinking about the potential of cold calling revenue. the only person I know still using aol is cancelling soon because they are bombarded with non blockable adverts within the aol client whenever the log in. I can see it now, coding late into the night, or playing games, and getting constantly interrupted by people trying to sell me insurance/double glazing/marital aids, whatever. If anyone starts it, it'll be aol, and as soon as someone does, everyone will. I imagine there will be an attempt to get voip users to accept that cold calling on voip is benificial to them, in much the same way that 'trusted computing' is useful (yeah, right).
"The article also outlines their plans to take on MySpace in the near future."
My bet is that "taking on MySpace" means a huge marketing campaign to 'warn' parents of the supposed 'dangers' of MySpace and how their expensive & restrictive system will be so much safer. Thereby getting the parents to force teenagers and such to switch.
If AOL are lucky they may even be able to get the parents to pay a monthly fee to switch and 'ensure' their childs safety. Such is the paranoia spread by the mainstream media these days.
As far as Marketing being the reason that AOL is still around, I would disagree. Compuserve was an old company that was started out of an even older company (H&R Block). CS had been around quite a bit longer than many of us have been alive. In fact, I remember celebrating some employees' 30-year anniversaries at CompuServe. IMO, CompuServe eventually lost in the marketplace because they didn't move quick enough to make a fun/happy/colorful service. Being matured and experienced, CompuServe spent their resources making their products and services reliable and trustworthy. Then, the 90s came around and every soccer-mom and junior high student wanted to get Online. And, both AOL and CompuServe had CDs and rebates everywhere you looked. In those days there was a third competitor some of you may remember called Prodigy. Just about everyone with a computer tried all three. As far as glitz, colors, and the rest of the hoo-haa was concerned, AOL won. CompuServe made a last ditch effort called CompuServe WOW! which was too much money spent way too late in the game. It was shortly thereafter that MCI/WorldComm took over and sold the CS client and customers to AOL.
I'm sure I'll be modded down, but even though the