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AOL Instant Messenger To Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil On Dec. 15

AOL Instant Messenger To Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil On Dec. 15

Like Marcel Proust nipping on a tea-soaked petite madeleine and finding himself awash in the memories of his youth, some of us of a certain age may be immediately transported to 1999 by the distinctive “Boo-da-loop… Ba-loop” call and response of AOL Instant Messenger. While you may have moved on from your early love affair with AIM, moving on to dalliances with texting, Facebook, WhatsApp, and so, so many others, AIM remained, patiently hoping you’d come back. Yet all the nostalgia in the world couldn’t save AIM, and so it will soon bid its final fare thee well.. [More]

Results for four of the 39 services currently evaluated on the EFF's Secure Messaging Scorecard.

Secure Messaging Scorecard Shows Just How Unprotected Your Online Chats Are

The Internet is a place where hundreds of millions of people go to write things they wouldn’t — or can’t — say in public, and many of the most private and secretive communications occur via the many instant messaging services available to consumers. But what you may not realize when sharing your personal thoughts (and images) with someone online is that the level of privacy and security on these services varies wildly from one to the next. [More]

Chatting With Porno Scambot Reveals Dark Truths About Nature Of Human Consciousness

Chatting With Porno Scambot Reveals Dark Truths About Nature Of Human Consciousness

What does it mean to be human? What defines our humanity? Writer Clive Thompson pondered these questions one night recently as he was being solicited by an online chatbot over AIM trying to get him to go to her sexy webcam site. [More]

Why Does AOL Instant Messenger Mobile Use Text Messages
Without Telling Me?

Why Does AOL Instant Messenger Mobile Use Text Messages Without Telling Me?

Heather tells Consumerist that has AOL Instant Messenger installed on her smartphone, but doesn’t really use it. Lately, she’s left the program running more often, and made an alarming discovery: she was charged for 800 text messages, even though she didn’t send 800 text messages. The culprit? AIM, of course. Each IM to and from her phone was charged as a text message. [More]

How To Delete Your Online Accounts

How To Delete Your Online Accounts

PC Mag has assembled a list of instructions on how to wipe your account from a long list of websites, including Classmates.com (you’ll have to call), Windows Live ID (it’s complicated), and Friendster (ha ha ha). In many cases, canceling is as straightforward as clicking a link and authorizing the cancellation, but it’s nice to see all the phone numbers and tips collected in one spot.

Verizon's Policy Blog V. SmarterChild

Verizon's Policy Blog V. SmarterChild

Verizon’s so-called “policy blog” is a grotesquely self-serving marketing orifice, perhaps the worst corporate blog we’ve ever read. We decided to stack Verizon’s inane sales schmaltz against the internet’s preeminent bullshit-spewing chatbot, SmarterChild….

Choose Your Own AOL Sponsored Spamventure

Choose Your Own AOL Sponsored Spamventure

Great Moments in Customer/Bank Relations

Great Moments in Customer/Bank Relations

And you think you have some nightmarish customer horror stories.

Quit AOL And Keep Your Email

Quit AOL And Keep Your Email

Now that AOL has dropped “America” from its title, you no longer even have the excuse of patriotism to stick with them.