Our best offer:

Lock in a year of Digiday+ for 35% less. Ends May 29.

SUBSCRIBE

Throwback Thursday video: How AOL urged America online

As the 1990s dawned, so, too, did the Internet era. The totems of the new age were the dial-up signal and the ubiquitous AOL CD. In February 1991, AOL for DOS was launched using a GeoWorks interface, followed a year later by AOL for Windows. Toward the end of the decade, its subscriber base swelled to the 10 million mark. In 1998, the film “You’ve Got Mail” confirmed AOL’s iconic e-mail greeting’s status as a cultural touchstone.

For the first time, it seemed as if just about anything and everything was at our fingertips. Owning your own email address was a novelty, and real-time chats were thrilling. Social currency was measured by how many friends you had on Instant Messenger. AOL may be more of an advertising technology company today, but for Throwback Thursday, we’re celebrating the ads that helped fuel America Online’s race down the information superhighway.

More in Media

Why Amazon and YouTube pitched operating systems, not just TV inventory at this year’s upfront

Negotiations over identity, infrastructure, AI-driven buying take place as much as programing.

The Economist prepares for a two‑track internet: one for humans and one for AI agents

The Economist is testing agent-readable versions of content that already sits outside its paywall, as it prepares for “two versions of the web.”

The case for and against clipping

Clipping is the creator growth hack of the year, but there are strong arguments for and against the practice. We break them down.