America Online Changes Name to AOL

By Nate Mook | Published April 3, 2006, 12:29 PM

Time Warner's America Online division has officially changed its name to AOL, LLC., a move that is intended to aid the company's efforts to shed its aging image as a dial-up service provider. AOL has been busy rolling out a new generation of Web services targeted at consumers outside its walled garden, including those not in the United States.

"Our company long ago accomplished the mission implied by our old name. We literally got America online," said AOL's chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller in a statement. "Our new corporate identity better reflects our expanded mission -- to make everyone's online experience better. Plus, consumers in the U.S. and around the world already know us by our initials."

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Who cares?

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I guess "America Online" was getting too complicated for its subscribers. Now they'll be asking what the L stands for.

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And to celebrate, they're offering 1500 HOURS FREE!

Hurry because this offer is limited to the first 6 billion callers...

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And you have to use them all within 15days of calling.

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America Off Line...nothing changed

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That's a stupid name for a company that is all over the world now. They have different divisions in several different countries, yet they chose to stick with the name "AOL". They should've renamed themselves to "WOL: World Online".

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And wipe out decades worth of marketing and brand identity

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From now on, I will be known as pcp.

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I remember getting my first Dell, May of 97. Didn't know anything bout the net. It had this disc in it from "AOL." I thought, OK, this is what I will use. (Like so many who have fallen into the trap.) So, I install it, and get..a busy signal. And a busy signal. And a busy signal. And a busy signal. You see where I am headed here. So...I was paying $$ for something......and getting nothing. Looks like judging from the comments here..nothing has changed.

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"Our company long ago accomplished the mission implied by our old name. We literally got America online," said AOL's chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller in a statement.

That is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Thanks!

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Refresh his memory please: Steve Jobs beat him to the punch(though he screwed up that advantage, among many others)...

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AOL's version of online, is hardly "online."

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how so? AOL does not take anything away. It adds on to the online experience. One could choose not to use any of the "AOL Features". And then youd be merely online.

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"One could choose not to use any of the "AOL Features". And then youd be merely online."

YEP, nail on the head. Answered you're own question on that one.

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OOOOhhhhh, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, gasp!!!!!!!!

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What was it that Shakespeare said? "A-O-Hell, by any other name... still sucks..."

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Next they'll officially change "PlayStation 3" to the NEW AND IMPROVED !OFFICIAL! "PS3".

And Barnes and Noble to "B&N"

And General Motors to "GM"

And (this gets boring quick)

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zzzzzzzzzzz...

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Cool.

I think I'm going to call myself Joe Mud now, as I'm all done with dirt.

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at least figuratively anyway. . . .

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no, it's gotta be initials-- not whole words...anyhow, i heard the Mexicans call you CJ:either Chivato or Chévere Joe(both compliments by the way-- as opposed to PJ(Pincha Joe).

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In other news, famous BetaNews poster GoodThings2Life, sick and tired of being called GoodLife and GoodThings, has officially changed his nickname to GT2L to better reflect his goals and purpose in life.

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That is an incomplete sentence. You should change your name to, WBGT2L or IBGT2L..

Or, BNBGT2L..

We bring, I bring, Beta News brings..

Its a good thing my name is easy.. its already an acronym.

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Umm... OOOK.. umm.. Wow, I hope that the marketing team got a big atta boy for that one.. I mean sheesh, that must have taken what, 10 seconds? Customers have been calling it AOL forever..

So in 10 years, AOL is going to stand for what?

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Ooooooo.... That'll help. Look out competing ISP's!

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Who has been calling them by any other name than AOL?

Even the CDs they send out have AOL on them. I don't get it.

While we are at it, let's call the 3rd generation playstation PS3. Anyone else agree to that.

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yes, and while we're at it
lets call the playstation portable "PSP"
but why stop there, we could abbreviate everything ... including internet protocols ...
HTTP, FTP, ICMP, UDP, TCP, IP, WAN, LAN, SSL ....

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yeah, too bad not "all" of america could be online at the same time

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The name change has less to do with brand recognition (as it was already there) than what people think. A smart person would realize that AOL's "official" name changing limits its liability and positions the company to be a large web portal at aol.com. Maybe we should be asking further as to "why?" ... the entire company's legal structure has changed ... and what is supposed to be coming.

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