Love it or loathe it, AOL played a large part in my early years as an Internet adventurer. I moved to AOL from Prodigy (and before that, the local BBS) back when we had our 9600 baud modem. I thought it was amazing at the time, and I remember AOL version 6 when they got their first 'web browser'. I downloaded a video from the Star Trek: Voyager web page: a 10-second welcome video in Quicktime from Robert Picado that took nearly 15 minutes to retrieve..ahh memories.

Off topic enough for you? Sorry.

This MS/AOL deal seems like an interesting combination. Outside of the Time Warner investment side of things, I haven't really kept track of AOL's base of users and assets. What would MS get out of this arrangement, out of curiosity? I suppose they would finally be able to get their hands on (or around the neck of) AOL Instant Messenger once and for all as well.

I'm surprised the company did not show up for free on a floppy in Microsoft's mailbox.

Who uses AOL lol?

If Microsoft is buying the portal and content business of AOL (not the ISP portion), that means it has come full circle and is acquiring Netscape? :)

If this means the end of AOL as we know it, I am completely for an AOL acquisition/dissolution.

If one old, slowly collapsing internet behemoth doesn't want to be bought out, try try again!