From Briefing.com this AM
Still a great morning read,IMO, for the money.
'America Online
Of all the Internet stocks, only America Online (AOL) has established a truly national brand name identity. Amazon.com, one could argue, is a close second, with E*Trade a possible third. Nevertheless, you can still encounter people who are not yet online who know about America Online, but aren't aware of Amazon.com.
America Online used to be ridiculed for sending out millions of diskettes with their access software. In retrospect, it is probably the single greatest tactical move the company made. Prodigy was the first online service, CompuServe was the biggest, but America Online spared no expense in building a brand name, and made the others insignificant.
The result? For many people, the distinction between the internet and America Online is lost. We have often heard people say "I finally got on the Internet. I just signed up with America Online." Because of this "first position" with its customers, America Online also has a distribution advantage. They cannot control where people go on the net, but they can provide many features and commerce opportunities with the AOL system before someone ventures out on the net.'
(robert, maybe time to call Melges for the new runner with the giant red rose on it..doing my crunches for the Laser.)
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