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To: Richard who wrote (19046)	1/19/2000 9:03:00 AM
From: Carolyn	Respond to of 29970

Agree, Richard. I love my cable modem and would never ever go back. Re: AOL, currently it is so popular, IMO, because the kids use it easily and their parents really don't care, having other stuff to do. This pattern will begin to change as these kids grow up and go to college, leaving said parents with an antiquated computer and AOL, still clueless but happily continuing in their lives. The kids, meanwhile, graduate, get jobs, etc., are more tech-savvy and go for speed. All this won't take very long.

To: Richard who wrote (19046)	1/19/2000 10:37:00 AM
From: gpowell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

The only issue of vendor differentiation will be speed. I agree that a day of reckoning is coming. The difference will come down to customizability (see the link below). The situation is analogous to the operating system shake out before microsoft established absolute control. KB and Ahahaha have explored a compelling model a few weeks back. Ideally, one should be able to reach any content or service with a minimum of searching and click through. Yahoo comes the closest to this now. Message 12593695 If you compare the ATHM site with Yahoo's, or AOL's there is little to distinguish them. They all offer the same basic content. Therefore, the choice of frequented site comes down to which interface one is most comfortable with or which interface has been customized to one's taste to a sufficient extent that they wouldn't want to switch to another.

To: Richard who wrote (19046)	1/19/2000 11:07:00 AM
From: ahhaha	Respond to of 29970

Trivially true, but what you've stated escapes the sharpest and most expensive analysts, savvy investors, and the general public. People believe what they're told. The truth goes begging. What is truth? Truth is a river which fills the sea of wisdom and issues from the mouth of god. It bypasses the media.

To: Richard who wrote (19046)	1/20/2000 12:04:00 AM
From: E. Davies	Respond to of 29970

I can't believe there will ever be enough money available to invest in "proprietary" content that can compete with what is available on the net at large. Just to keep the discussion framed it is not about that. It is about having enough proprietary content that one might choose you as an ISP instead of someone else. To be even more accurate I should note that AOL is the only one who intends to have propritary content of any significant size. Excite Broadband will be available to anyone on the net. So its not "Is AOL better than the web?". It's "Is AOL content worth the extra $2/month they charge?" (and having to put up with all those ads). It will be as long as they can keep ICQ proprietary. AOL's best "content" is simply the size of it's subscriber base. What happens when exclusivity ends and @home is 8 million users strong? Critical mass- nobody will have any reason to pick anyone else (except AOL of course). I find a decent analogy the deregulation of the long distance business. Most people stuck with AT&T simply because it was too much work to change. If the difference between AT&T and Sprint were only $2/month most people would never even bother. @home will keep whatever customers it has unless it throws them away. Why would anybody switch? Eric