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WE SHOULD BE THANKING, NOT SPANKING AOL

Commentary which ran in the Rocky Mountain News business section, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2000.

It's begun again. The harping is starting about how AOL is conspiring to contaminate the Internet with its evil hard-drive corrupting code and its zombie armies of "newbies" who clutter the information superhighway like teenaged drivers on a drunken joyride endangering the rest of us more civilized online travelers.

Oh please, people -- relax. Stop your whining and face the fact that you're mystified by AOL's success because you're an Internet snob who's threatened by America Online's ability to connect normal folks - the Joe and Mary Sixpacks of the world - to the riches of cyberspace.

I went to work for America Online's Digital City Denver as content editor, in the dawn of the commercial Internet industry. In the fall and winter of 1996-97, I spent an inordinate amount of time defending AOL. These days, I work for a "real" Internet company, and I still find myself defending AOL… as if the 800-pound online gorilla needs my help.

Like an evangelist for television in 1949, I explained to people how the Internet wouldn't become a mainstream mass medium until AOL tipped the scales in favor of Joe and Mary Sixpack instead of the early-adoptive geeks who've acted as if the Web was their own personal sandbox. The geeks drip contempt for newbies. But the fact is that AOL's simple content and e-mail interface, combined with the best community-building message boards and chat rooms on the Internet has helped the Web become established among communication and entertainment media much faster than the telephone, radio, TV, VCR or even cell phones.

A common slam against AOL in 1996 was that it's "the Internet on training wheels." I responded then, as now, that not everyone needs a $5,000 mountain bike. I have a $300 mountain bike and it suits my needs just fine.

Sure, there are and always have been problems with AOL: The company has always prized its proprietary content more than the Web at large so its built-in Web browsers have often been rotten and klugey versions of Internet Explorer or other commercial products. AOL uses a caching system which serves up its content quickly but can confound access to some Web sites. And AOL's highly-touted e-mail system can't handle attachments from non-AOL Internet addresses. These have been constant gripes, but they haven't killed off the gorilla yet.

But AOL's survived a series of controversies and withering criticism and seen its membership grow from 5 million in 1996 to 22 million today - these people aren't all deluded and stupefied. They like AOL, and what's wrong with that?

Now the nay-sayers are howling about AOL's merger with Time-Warner, claiming the deal will kill independent content online and "vanillize" the Web. And the latest hue and cry is over how installing AOL 5.0 can affect your PC's modem settings and disable your other ISP access.

It's silly to think that one provider can squelch any independent content on the Internet (of the billions of Web pages out there, most are already independent, and many feature very alternative content). Sure, there's a looming issue of whether independent Web producers will have access to the coming broadband pipes that AOL's trying to own via its Time-Warner acquisition. But that's like blaming one popular FM radio station in a market for forcing alternative formats to the AM dial. There are lots of issues with broadband that you can't pin on AOL.

And, the "problem" with AOL 5.0 isn't new. When AOL introduced its 4.0 software, many users were confused over what settings to use between AOL and their other ISP or network connections. I didn't have any problems installing 5.0 to test drive it for the free 250 hours. People who are having problems aren't paying attention during the installation when they're asked if they want AOL to be their ISP.

Is this an AOL conspiracy to trick people into using only AOL and no other service provider? Give me a break - gorillas don't need to trick anyone. All AOL does is get its damn disks out everywhere and market the hell out of their service. People are signing up because they're curious about he Internet and they know AOL is easy to use, not because they're being fooled into it.

The snobs can stay with their ISPs. I will too - I don't use AOL anymore. But I can say with certainty that AOL is helping to make the Web a place for everyone, and that's why I and my colleagues (most are AOL-haters) have Internet jobs today.

So thank you, Steve Case, for giving me a career path that's full of such promise and excitement. Keep up the good work.

Gil Asakawa is director of content for ServiceMagic.com, a Golden, Colorado-based Internet company.