I don’t see plenty of upside in our slide.
I gave a basic one word answer to a tough question, “Yes.” 
We did get a point. We did hit plenty of posts.
While we are at it, I am not a cyber tycoon. I was a long term exec at AOL, the publisher of this blog Fanhouse.
I was there at the birth of AOL Sports.
I did say to the blogger, “Do you have confidence in AOL and in Tim Armstrong?” I am a blogger, too, you know.
Just trying to be funny.
A. J. said “Yes.” Glad to hear that!
Read this one. Must have been a slow news day.
I am sure someone at AOL before me must have been talking about Social Media and Social Networks. It was a natural extension out of community, content, context, etc. and the early work in AIM and instant messaging. AOL pioneers must have had first use of this term. I am probably sure I talked about it even before 1997 as noted here, too.
This reporter called me after he did his search and said I had a first public use of the term. I said, “Who cares?”
And I still say, “Who cares?”
I ain’t competing for credit. Too funny.
I was shocked in 1994. We had acquired ICQ at AOL. We needed to create revenue streams around it so we added a search box to the control panel.
I thought that this was a great consumer benefit. The ICQ messenger service was always on. It had persistence. It was right in front of you. A customer could talk to a friend and then search the web without firing up a browser. This was convenient and would generate lots of click through and lots of dollars for us.
It was a complete dud.
When we researched why we found that consumers take their friend to friend communications very seriously. They don’t get into any other mode outside of communications. They don’t want to be distracted.
Everything is connected.
So I go to see Caps rookie camp - by myself - on Sunday and I return and tell my wife (who is Swedish) about the kids from Sweden. We talk about Sweden and the talk leads to discussion about her grandmother.
We then go to the movies and we see the movie The American starring George Clooney. The film opens in Dalarna, Sweden! That is my wife’s family’s hometown. How coincidental and random is that? My wife’s grandmother came to America from Dalarna.
Before the film, there are two movie trailers. One is for Catfish, a film produced by a close friend named Andrew Jarecki. The film starts showing reviewer comments and one is from indieWIRE which I acquired and am majority owner. Who knew? I didn’t.
The second trailer is for the Facebook-based movie and I swear I get total deja vu about AOL and our work on You’ve Got Mail, the film starring Tom Hanks.
Only we liked You’ve Got Mail and by the looks of the trailer my bet is Facebook won’t be loving this new film.
Wonder if Facebook will promote or take ad media dollars regarding this film from the studio? This will be interesting to see.
On phones. Sounds like what the folks at Tegic used to say to me a long time ago at AOL, “Oh yeah, we bought Tegic and then someone sold it for cash.”
Tegic invented this kind of thinking and algorithms – for mobile - a shame people forget. Another place where AOL led the pack 11 years ago. What is old is new again.
And I don’t want to hear how AOL blew it – Tegic is the leader in its space. AOL just never built a huge mobile practice in the B2B sector.
Tegic was predictive and on phones anticipating what you wanted to type a long time ago. Check it out here and here.
I am not a co-founder of AOL. I am unsure of how this descriptor has crept into mainstream media. I was founder of Redgate Communications which was AOL’s first acquisition. I am proud of my early work with AOL. When AOL acquired Redgate we (combined) had less than 400 employees. I am proud that there is now a building with my name on campus at AOL but I am not a co-founder of the company. I worked at the company for almost 13 years. I retired at the end of 2006.
Steve Case, Jim Kimsey and Mark Seriff are the co-founders of what we call AOL today. There were many early AOLers who did fantastic work too that don’t get enough credit and recognition by media - Jean Case; Jan Brandt; Jack Davies; Audrey Weil; Kathy Ryan; Mike Connors; Barry Appelman; Matt Korn - the list goes on and on.
There was a predecessor company called Quantum Computer. You can read all about the roots of the company and its originator in Kara Swisher’s book about AOL. I talk a bit about AOL too in my book, The Business of Happiness. I do not want to offend my friends who were the real founders of the AOL and am hopeful that media will be more accurate in the use of the term ”co-founder of AOL.” Thank you.
I am not a billionaire. This one is funny. When I bought the teams 12years ago, a writer at the Washington Post tried to figure out my net worth and he counted up my shares and options and wrote that my net worth “hovered near a billion dollars.” I asked the writer what hovered meant and what “hovered as a unit” was defined by in terms of dollars. We both laughed. I also asked him if he knew what my other assets were worth outside of my AOL holdings and of course he said no.
The very next day, another article in the Washington Post – by a different writer - called me a billionaire. And it stuck. It stuck even though the stock price of AOL went up; then down; and further down. We have had two economic downturns, etc. etc.
I am not a billionaire. I wish media would be more judicious in their use of this term. Is that pre-tax - after tax? How do you value what? Just don’t use it in any articles anymore. It isn’t true for me and for most other people that you use it as a short hand descriptor for these days. You don’t have to be a billionaire to feel blessed and happy and wealthy, you know? Read my book. Thank you.
I own as much of the Washington Mystics as I do of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards and Verizon Center and the local Ticketmaster franchise. All of these enterprises are under the umbrella of Monumental Sports and Entertainment. I am pleased to say that Sheila Johnson is also an owner of all of the assets listed above. She is also one of two vice chairmen of the over all company and she is President and managing partner of the Mystics, too.
There - three setting the records straight with mainstream media instances this month. Thank you - and thank you for being more diligent in your reporting in the future.
Sometimes being first isn’t the best right answer. I know - I once worked at AOL!
Google is making BIG NEWS. They have integrated phone calling from email and messaging that is called “convergence.” Text and audio. Together. Hooray.
Aol did this eight years ago!
AIM with VoIP and don’t forget AOLbyPhone.
What will be next - video conferencing integrated into mail and messaging? Been there and done that, too! I wish Aol could be reinvigorated again around “communications and content with commerce” relevantly baked in via presence. What is old is new again!
Good for our country and good on Steve Case. Check this blog out. Check out this news. Congrats to Steve Case.
AOL’s Black Voices has a terrific interactive feature going today around health and child care.
You can ask our First Lady Michelle Obama questions and she will respond in kind. Click here to go to the splash page with instructions.
I am proud to say that AOL launched the first African American programming ventures online back in 1994, and also acquired Black Voices under my watch back in the day.
Get involved. Check this one out.
I helped start it, and I funded it, and I embraced it. It was called Digital Marketing Services. See article within.
It was the first ever online paneling research company. It created the first online rewards program. It managed the AAAdvantage Program — the first online, offline usage-for-miles program with an airline. It did the first set of consumer testing for marketing companies and Hollywood studios. “What would you think of xx as the lead actor in this film?” “Will you be eating more or less salty snacks this Super Bowl Sunday than last year?” It helped ease the first set of brave advertisers to use the medium back in the mid 90′s. Its work helped to validate the medium.
It was the first research company in the world to package up the opinions of US households that were online — 400,000 families in the panel at the height of AOL’s growth. We knew what America was thinking thanks to these polls and panel. It helped to instruct and inform in-house product feature decisions as well and internal marketing campaigns.
DMS was a great little company — very valuable at the time to AOL. A big thank you to all who worked there, and to your early and seminal contributions to our industry.