Sunday, January 4, 2004

Yet Another Moment to Complain About AOL (2 of 2)

But that's just a minor frustration.  This was nothing compared to my anger when I signed off AOL to do some web surfing.

I opened my web browser and discovered ... AOL had taken it over.  My home page was no longer google, but AOL.com.  My bookmarks now had AOL at the top, and a bunch of AOL links and folders had been magically added to the list.  At the bottom was a link to realaudio (an AOL partner, no?) which I hadn't put there.

Took me a few minutes to delete all that crap and try to reclaim my browser for myself.  After which, AOL asked me (with checkboxes already marked) if I wanted it to be the default for playing certain types of media.  NO!  No, I don't!  And I didn't want you to be my default home page, or to take over my bookmarks or anything else having to do with my web-surfing experience outside AOL, but I don't recall you asking about that either.

Hasn't the software industry learned YET that people hate grabby programs?

Word to the wise, people.  If you want to keep your journal fully functioning, you're going to have to upgrade to 9.0 sooner or later (as, apparently, that's the only version that AOL is going to bother supporting).  And when you do, it will try to take over your computer.

Grrrr.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

AOhelL Journals is one of the rare things where I actual use AOhelL. That is to say it works better than in a separate browser. I use Netscrape 7.2 or something and it doesn't change with each update. I tend to download or get the latest frequently, just because I can't help but tinker. Sometimes it serves me right. AOL6? Shudder. Gordy

Anonymous said...

No! I will resist. I will!

I feel like I'm getting old when I ask why someone or something just can't leave well enough alone.