Teddy Bloggie Blog Blogging

I use AOL's Instant Messenger program pretty frequently. I started using it about six years ago and it was the first program of its kind, as far as I know. Yesterday, the thing flashed something like, "New Version, Click to Upgrade." Looking back on it, I was naive. I clicked "ok" or its equivalent (I think computers train your mind not to remember more so than even TV) and off it went... downloading automatically, installing, shutting down my computer and rebooting. All was fine and still is. Except this: I've been seeing AOL's links everywhere. It was on my shortcut bar, on the desktop, on the start menu and it even inserted itself as a new link in my internet explorer. I feel as though AOL walked into my computer and flyered it like some cheap dorm. AOL must be getting desperate for business since parent company AOL/TimeWarner's been noticing the ad revenue drying up and subscriptions falling...

I guess the target audience of people who fear the internet is dwindling. Maybe people dislike accessing the internet from behind the cosy yellow, blue and white fascade of AOL. I'm sure the youth aren't impressed by the lumbering service provider nor by the veil of userfriendliness that AOL markets. I don't know of any improvements that AIM has made since its introduction six years ago. They've probably added a zillion new features to it, at least the new version is larger with more ad space, but I still only use it for casual messaging. Some software require updates but not a single function piece of software like instant messaging. Please, give me the stripped down 'net... hold the cheese.