electron zoo

Long known as the “easy” internet — praised by grandmothers and shunned by the tech elite — AOL, at $20+ per month, has seemed overpriced for years. The free hours of internet they used to offer upfront used to seem like a steal, but they’re now as easy to come by as so many landfill-clogging promo CDs.

Which is why I felt pretty silly installing AOL 9 on my pristine and professional Shuttle XPC last week. Why would I do that? Mainly because AOL is suddenly FREE. So why shouldn’t I add it to my at-home website-testing arsenal so I can ensure that my websites and HTML email newsletters look okay for the at-AOL-dot-com crowd?

Here’s how I set it up:
1. Go to AOL’s free email setup screen and create your new at-AOL-dot-com email address.
2. Get the AOL 9.0VR software from AOL’s download page and install it.
3. Login with your new AOL account (that you created in Step 1).

Now I’m sending all my test HTML emails to my at-AOL-dot-com email account (in addition to Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, and others) … rather than just relying on my Mom to check them for me. (Sorry Mom, I’ll miss you.)

AOL didn’t seem to have taken over my computer too audaciously, but a familiar little triangle is lurking in my system tray, just waiting to say “Welcome!”. (Yes, AOL is free, so “Welcome” and “You’ve Got Mail!” won’t cost you a dime.)

Anyway, I believe that both AOL users and web developers will benefit from free AOL, because developers will be more likely to test their content in AOL now that it’s free — certainly I am — and that means less buggy internet content for AOL end-users.

And because Time Warner (who owns AOL) can still sell pricey Road Runner High Speed Internet accounts to the kind of users that have $20+ a month for AOL, the company may even have a future beyond monthly billing.