Aol.com Pages: 235-318

Summary:

With the continuing problems that AOL was facing, hope in the company seemed to diminish. The pornography case went all the way to the Supreme Court and had advocated from both sides fighting furiously for each of their beliefs. Most of those advocated were people from different organizations who fought for children’s rights. Their main goal was to fight for children and protect them from things that might be harmful to their well beings. These advocated were trying to make it part of the law for these pornographic materials to be removed from the internet. AOL the largest internet provider was facing these serious charges and although they specifically weren’t being targeted as distributing these materials, simply because they weren’t, the images, files were still part of AOL’s internet database causing great embarrassment to the company.

After the debate between congress and the advocates for children’s rights it was voted that the “indecent” material would be kept out of the internet, it was passed down to the Supreme court due to the fact that it was against the first amendment(freedom of speech). This all went public and times even created a magazine that displayed AOL on the front cover. It was an embarrassment to the company, but they were able to get over it due to the sales they were still receiving. It was just a bump on the long road that AOL was on.

            Months later, AOL went back into action and went back into the competitive scene with Microsoft. They assimilated with a company called CompuServe, once their biggest rival. This made AOL the largest online internet server once again and it basically crushed all of its competition. It was amazing how this company was one pronounced “dead” and all of a sudden only a few years later they were the top internet providing company that defeated most of its competition.  Competition that was once impossible for them to compete in. Steve Case must have been very proud of his company and the milestones him and his company keep setting.

            So by the end of 1997, AOL was able to add millions of more customers, and create a large boost in the company’s profit. Even then Steve Case was not able to rest. He still couldn’t relax at the thought that things could take a turn for the worst at a time in this success streak the company was going through. Maybe he just needed a little faith?

Quote:

“Just six months before, AOL had been the laughingstock of the online world. Now it was the conqueror” (Swisher 304).

Reaction:

The AOL company went through a lot in the many years it’ been in the business. They went through many situations, both good and bad but that didn’t stop any of the employee’s. Every single day they came back to work and fought to make their company the best company. With their hard work and dedication, they made their company what they always dreamed it would be. Going from a laughingstock to the conqueror of the entire internet world is a wonderful accomplishment; one that I believe should be admired by all tech lovers.