According to this AP story:

The walls surrounding America Online Inc.'s well-manicured gardens are crumbling. In a move both risky and essential, AOL is abandoning its strategy of exclusivity and will free much of its music, sports and other programming to non-subscribers in hopes of boosting ad sales.

Welcome back to the world of the relevant, AOL. It's a bold move, but it's about time you woke up and noticed the World Wide Web.

It'll be interesting to see what this means for Yahoo. More competition, surely. But better competition?

Posted by jzawodn at December 12, 2004 08:21 PM

Reader Comments
# said:

Better competition? From AOL? Fat chance...

on December 13, 2004 07:02 AM
# justin said:

AOL finally wake up - about 10 years too late.

on December 13, 2004 08:09 AM
# TDavid said:

AOL has some outstanding AOL-only content. This is a good move, I think, to share this with the rest of the web, although I agree with the comment above that it might be too late.

on December 13, 2004 08:29 AM
# Fernando said:

I don't think that it will help AOL at all.
I use to be on AOL for a Long, Long, Long time.

AOL's content has never been the issue. To me it's always been about their service. I just figure aol just took on more than they could handle.

People, there is a place for dial up. For those that do not know how to use the net, and for those who do not know the dangers of BroadBand, my best advice is to stay on Dialup if you don’t know what you are doing.

on December 13, 2004 06:00 PM
# JJ said:

A target to buy?

on December 14, 2004 10:30 AM
# Dirk said:

Test it free for 150 h (* conditions apply). I still see those CDs around. In the age of flat rates this sounds terribly outdated.

on December 14, 2004 11:02 AM
# Michael Savoy said:

This move is a death knell, marking the beginning of the end for AOL. It puts them on a slippery slope that will usher in AOL's end of the end a lot faster than they realize.

AOL is a dinosaur. Everyone knows it, even AOL knows it. Come to think of it, it's truly the VERY LAST dying vestige of the incredibly surreal "Internet Bubble" thrashing about in its last death throes of agony.

You've got to ask yourself what took so long? really. AOL has got to be the ultimate poster child symbolizing all that was insane and manic about the pioneering days of the internet.

on December 14, 2004 02:22 PM
# aaron said:

AOL the mammoth trying its luck with Formula1. Its about time AOL pulled up its socks. Good move. Its last chance of revival.
AOL is still a recokining force with more than 22million subscribers. If it goes all out with its strategy others better watch out.


on December 15, 2004 01:38 PM
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