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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Vendit™ who wrote (5467)	2/22/1999 6:20:00 PM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

But it isn't as an ISP that AOL is diversified. It is as an ICP (Internet Content Provider) that AOL diversifies itself. Just by the nature of the business, an ISP can't diversify all that much. What they do is supply a user with an internet address, but there's very little obvious interaction between a user and the ISP once the connection is made. It's very much a utility model: We only notice the electric company when the lights go out (and, of course, when we pay the bill). But you're right that as an ICP, AOL is doing a better job than just about anyone else in appealing to and recognizing the unique needs of different groups of users. Part of the reason for that might be that AOL has higher negatives to go along with their positives in name recognition, but they seem to have figured out how to handle that. I've been watching the ICQ acquisition to see how AOL would handle it, and so far I've been pleasantly surprised.