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Technology Stocks : America On-Line: will it survive ...? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: the Druid who wrote (7277)	2/9/1998 9:48:00 PM
From: Howard Hoffman	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 13594

1. Most valuable to me: First Call Earnings Reports 2. Oil & Gas posts on Motley Fool (most other MF message boards are weak and weakening. I spend more time on SI. 3. Stock price charts (I realize these are available from other sources on the net and am checking out some other sources) 4. I need to find a better ISP. I also use Netcom. My net connections are often slow and PCWorld rates Netcom low. 5. Friends on AOL can send me instant messages. 6. AOL is good for kids. I have 3 and can restrict them to kids areas. However, some of the mail I get on AOL is pretty crass and includes x-rated images. I hope this does not get sent to my kids. 7. I only use AOL to access the WWW when Netcom is down -- it is my backup ISP. 8. File transfer to other AOL users is foolproof. Never know with ISP. I believe AOL is way overpriced but that may not stop it from going up another 50 points. For a mass market consumer company, a stock split may increase demand for stock from small investors, improving liquidity. RE $2 increase. Since payment is via credit card, users will not feel the increase. I doubt AOL will have 3 or 4% cancellations from increase. I will think about but probably will not act. I am not currently long or short on AOL. I am short YHOO which is way more overpriced than AOL.

To: the Druid who wrote (7277)	2/9/1998 10:40:00 PM
From: Keith J	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13594

What does AOL have that others (like YHOO and other aggregators) don't? Not much. Here's the main "channel" lineup: AOL Today, News, Sports, Entertainment, Travel, Influence (never been there), International, Personal Finance, Workplace, Computing, Research & Learn, Games (including a premium section where you pay/hour), Shopping, Interests, Health, Lifestyles, Families, Kids Only, Local, Internet, and People Connection. Basically, it has some content that you can find for free in other places, some "partner" content that may be free for AOLers (i.e., First Call earnings estimates - with detailed info, not just basic info as on YHOO research), and some proprietary content. Chat is a killer use on AOL (XCIT chat is pretty similar, although there's not the depth there yet); along with instant messaging and buddy lists (which is moving towards open access to anyone on the web). One of the better things about AOL is you can have several windows open at one time without much problem. But it can be annoying at times too, like typing here I got a message "You have been idle for a while, do you want to stay online". Makes you stop typing and have to click the mouse. Gee, David Gardner (of the Motley Fool) quoted one of my AOL MF posts in his writeup on AOL tonight. Labeled me a skeptic. <G> But hey, I'll at best probably shop for an ISP and change my AOL account to bring your own provider. At worst, I'll cancel altogether eventually. KJ