Question
The Invasion of the Free CD
Creating Connections Social Studies: US History II
The invasion began as a trickle. In the beginning, they innocently appeared in mailboxes. Next, they were hidden within the pages of magazines. Eventually, they appeared in seemingly every cereal box, fast food tray, and bookstore in the country.
They were America Online (AOL) trial discs. They had only one purpose: to convince people to sign up for an Internet service.
The Internet Problem
AOL was a company that provided Internet service. But in the 1990s, the Internet hadn't yet become essential for businesses, socializing, and pretty much everything else. But there was a problem. The company only had about 200,000 subscribers, mainly because most people didn't really understand what the Internet was.
This was a hard problem to solve. The Internet wasn't like an action figure, movie, or car, where a TV commercial could make everyone understand why they should buy the product. No one even knew what a good ad for the Internet would look like.
AOL's leaders knew they needed to market their product in a way that was completely new. In 1993, the company's chief marketing officer determined there was only one way to sell the Internet. That was to let people use the Internet. The idea of the trial disc was born.
In the spring and summer of 1993, AOL sent a wave of discs to mailboxes across the country. Each disc contained software to get online, along with hours of free Internet access. The promotion was a hit. Many of the people who got the discs became paying customers. After the success of the first mailing wave, it turned into a storm of discs. They showed up in places like frozen foods, banks, and airplane seat pockets.
From 1993 to 2006, AOL spent around 300 million U.S. dollars on the discs. So many were produced that it's been estimated that, at one time, over half the CDs produced in the world were for AOL!
Slow But Steady
For people who used AOL, dial-up Internet of the 1990s was far different from the Internet of today. Dial-up literally meant calling into a network on a landline. To get online, a person dialed a phone number through their computer's modem. The process was slow. There was a noisy series of clicks and buzzes as the computer connected to the network.
After the computer finally connected, the entire Internet was available, but at 56k speeds. That's about 200 times slower than the Internet most people use today. At such slow speeds, streaming video was impossible. There were also a few things to watch out for. Dial-up used the phone line. That meant that if anyone tried to call a person who was online, they would get a never-ending busy signal—a tone indicating that the person was using the phone. And the voicemail (or, more likely at the time, the answering machine) wouldn't pick up. Since landlines were the main form of communication back then, this meant the caller was out of luck. Plus, early Internet was sold by the hour. The four minutes it took to download a photo didn't come cheap. Anyone who used more than the free hours AOL provided was charged. That made AOL a whole lot of money.
Eventually, AOL became a giant of the dial-up industry, with about 5 million users in 1996 and 23 million by 2000. At its peak, the company was registering a new user every six seconds! As a result, in the 1990s, AOL came to mean "Internet," just as Kleenex usually means "tissue." Having an AOL email address was fairly standard among Internet users.
AOL's dynasty didn't last forever. With the introduction of faster technology and other Internet providers, dial-up quickly lost its appeal. By 2006, the trial discs were no more. In 2010, AOL's user base shrank below 5 million. AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications in 2019. Still, AOL was the main reason Americans first got hooked on the Web. The company played a huge role in turning the Internet into the cultural force it is today.
Video Credit: Sound courtesy and inset image Verizon Media. Photo by U.S. Army
Video Transcript: You've Got Mail
Question 8
8 / 8
According to the Article, which of these happened first?
AOL was registering a new user every six seconds, reaching 23 million subscribers.
AOL sent out a wave of CDs that contained hours of free Internet access across the country.
AOL provided Internet service by the hour to around 200,000 subscribers.
AOL leaders determined that to sell the Internet to people they had to let them use it for free.
Creating Connections Social Studies: US History II
The invasion began as a trickle. In the beginning, they innocently appeared in mailboxes. Next, they were hidden within the pages of magazines. Eventually, they appeared in seemingly every cereal box, fast food tray, and bookstore in the country.
They were America Online (AOL) trial discs. They had only one purpose: to convince people to sign up for an Internet service.
The Internet Problem
AOL was a company that provided Internet service. But in the 1990s, the Internet hadn't yet become essential for businesses, socializing, and pretty much everything else. But there was a problem. The company only had about 200,000 subscribers, mainly because most people didn't really understand what the Internet was.
This was a hard problem to solve. The Internet wasn't like an action figure, movie, or car, where a TV commercial could make everyone understand why they should buy the product. No one even knew what a good ad for the Internet would look like.
AOL's leaders knew they needed to market their product in a way that was completely new. In 1993, the company's chief marketing officer determined there was only one way to sell the Internet. That was to let people use the Internet. The idea of the trial disc was born.
In the spring and summer of 1993, AOL sent a wave of discs to mailboxes across the country. Each disc contained software to get online, along with hours of free Internet access. The promotion was a hit. Many of the people who got the discs became paying customers. After the success of the first mailing wave, it turned into a storm of discs. They showed up in places like frozen foods, banks, and airplane seat pockets.
From 1993 to 2006, AOL spent around 300 million U.S. dollars on the discs. So many were produced that it's been estimated that, at one time, over half the CDs produced in the world were for AOL!
Slow But Steady
For people who used AOL, dial-up Internet of the 1990s was far different from the Internet of today. Dial-up literally meant calling into a network on a landline. To get online, a person dialed a phone number through their computer's modem. The process was slow. There was a noisy series of clicks and buzzes as the computer connected to the network.
After the computer finally connected, the entire Internet was available, but at 56k speeds. That's about 200 times slower than the Internet most people use today. At such slow speeds, streaming video was impossible. There were also a few things to watch out for. Dial-up used the phone line. That meant that if anyone tried to call a person who was online, they would get a never-ending busy signal—a tone indicating that the person was using the phone. And the voicemail (or, more likely at the time, the answering machine) wouldn't pick up. Since landlines were the main form of communication back then, this meant the caller was out of luck. Plus, early Internet was sold by the hour. The four minutes it took to download a photo didn't come cheap. Anyone who used more than the free hours AOL provided was charged. That made AOL a whole lot of money.
Eventually, AOL became a giant of the dial-up industry, with about 5 million users in 1996 and 23 million by 2000. At its peak, the company was registering a new user every six seconds! As a result, in the 1990s, AOL came to mean "Internet," just as Kleenex usually means "tissue." Having an AOL email address was fairly standard among Internet users.
AOL's dynasty didn't last forever. With the introduction of faster technology and other Internet providers, dial-up quickly lost its appeal. By 2006, the trial discs were no more. In 2010, AOL's user base shrank below 5 million. AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications in 2019. Still, AOL was the main reason Americans first got hooked on the Web. The company played a huge role in turning the Internet into the cultural force it is today.
Video Credit: Sound courtesy and inset image Verizon Media. Photo by U.S. Army
Video Transcript: You've Got Mail
Question 8
8 / 8
According to the Article, which of these happened first?
AOL was registering a new user every six seconds, reaching 23 million subscribers.
AOL sent out a wave of CDs that contained hours of free Internet access across the country.
AOL provided Internet service by the hour to around 200,000 subscribers.
AOL leaders determined that to sell the Internet to people they had to let them use it for free.
Answers
GPT-4o mini
According to the article, the event that happened first is:
**AOL provided Internet service by the hour to around 200,000 subscribers.**
This came before the determination to let people use the Internet for free, the subsequent wave of CDs sent out across the country, and the later achievement of registering a new user every six seconds.
**AOL provided Internet service by the hour to around 200,000 subscribers.**
This came before the determination to let people use the Internet for free, the subsequent wave of CDs sent out across the country, and the later achievement of registering a new user every six seconds.