I didn't want to get into this per se, but since 420 is proffering interpretations of my word-hole, I'm going to take the bait (mo's a troll, by the way).
I don't actually agree that only geeks should have access to the web- accessibility is one of its greatest assets! But I do think that AOL trained a huge set of users with low expectations and lame behaviors that are detrimental to the web.
For instance, AOL has always been shamelessly self-promoting, and has clogged many's the landfill with their CDs. For that alone I would probably hate them. But, the ramification of their self-promotion is that internet users now expect it. If you don't ram your name down everyone's in-box, you're no one.
Another problem I have with AOL is the overly-simplified interface: it's assumes the user is ignorant and wants to remain ignorant. Users can't *learn* anything about what they're actually doing. This leads to ignorant users all over the web who expect that everyone uses AOL and everything should look and work like AOL.
AOL's dreadful history of performance problems and disconnects has trained people to expect crappy internet connections, and I can't abide that. People should expect better than AOL, but because of AOL's proliferation, they don't. (This last applies to Starbucks, Walmart, Microsoft, etc. It may be a fact of the "new economy" but it seems like putting all your eggs into one basket).
Now Mo, I do agree that the commercialization of the web was inevitable, but it didn't necessarily have to be the mass of uneducated users with low expectations and high frustration levels that it often is. And I blame the culture AOL built and propagated for a lot of those expectations.
-Throbblefoot
