Anti-AOL

Asking why AOL screws up nearly everything they touch is like asking why the sun shines on a clear day, but I'm a sucker for tradition, and for two years running I've done so, so why not a third? It's reasonable to expect this is the last Top 5 I'll ever do on AOL since the company is dying. With no further ado, AOL's top five blunders of 2008:

AOL purchases Bebo. Why?

In AOL's biggest "WTF?" moment of 2008, they blew a cool $850 million on Bebo, a mostly UK-based social network that only 5 million Americans visit regularly, then admitted they wasted their money on it. To put the gargantuan-ness of this mistake into perspective, imagine one billion dollars. Now imagine Facebook. Now imagine that not even Facebook, the biggest, most successful social network on Earth besides MySpace, is not worth anything near one billion dollars. It probably isn't. Subtract a measly $150 million dollars from that billion we were just kicking around, and that's what AOL paid for an overseas flea circus that word of mouth says makes the population of MySpace look upright, prudish, and filthy rich in comparison.

Further imagine that even the most successful social network cannot survive without money. That's not a fantasy - that's the truth. So far both MySpace and Facebook have proven hard to monetize. People tune out or block out the ads that support those sites, so the profit margins are at best slim. Now imagine that Bebo doesn't have anywhere near MySpace's audience or reach. Do the math on the ad reach - ain't too pretty, is it?

In the end, it looks like AOL paid $850 million to do an integration of the Bebo and AOL home pages that a small team could have whipped up in a week flat for say, $6,000. It's like NetVibes all over again - did Netvibes cost anyone $850 million? $850 million bought AOL little more than the right to brag on Bebo's home page:

"The top part of the homepage [now] allows you to receive email updates from AOL, Yahoo Mail, [and] Gmail directly to your Bebo homepage. Underneath that section, you will see a "changes" area that let's you see what is going on with your AIM, Twitter, Flickr, Del.icio.us, YouTube and, of course, your Bebo friends. On the right hand side, you will see a media recommendations area which includes all of your subscriptions and stuff we think you'll enjoy."

Wow. $850 million for a web page integrated with some of AOL's services that will gain traction with not one more person in the US than it has so far. Being a fiscally austere person, this sort of extravagance gives me fits. Do you know what AOL could do with $850 million dollars?

1. AOL could give a $212.25 refund to every person in the US who has ever used AOL, assuming 40 million total signups and maybe 20 million users who got screwed by over-billing practices at some point.
2. They could pay Google back every penny they lost taking a dumb risk on AOL as an ad and search partner - not that Google deserves to be compensated for their hard-to-explain short-sightedness.
3. They could simply hang onto it to add to their lousy bottom line. I could get more creative but I'm too tired to bother.

AOL raises dial-up rates again.

While it's not as flashy as news of AOL buying Bebo, AOL raising dial-up rates from $9.99 with tech support to $9.99 without tech support or $11.99 with tech support is the stupidest thing they did all year. No one wants dial-up anymore, so no one will use it if they can help it. Dial-up has fallen so far out of favor with the masses that they willingly pay top dollar for DSL, broadband, and even high-speed dial-up, with it's promise of near-perfect image and data compression at top speeds and a price-tag of about $17 a month. Today's websites, based heavily on Flash, AJAX, and image-rich style sheets, just don't load well at dial-up speeds.

Even AOL's dial-up users realize this, with memberships dropping from 9 million to 6.9 million year-over-year. AOL's answer to declining subscription revenue was not to keep the rate low to attract as many users as possible, but to raise it to maximize profit on the few people left who either like or must use AOL dial-up for whatever reason.

The only saving grace for AOL users is that from word-on-the-street talk, I gather most people who use AOL dial-up still pay about $23.90 a month for it. Like my sister-in-law, who hasn't used her AOL connection in years - so anyone who either signs up now or asks for the new, "lower" $11.99 rate will actually save money compared to how much AOL dial-up used to cost. What a thought!

AOL blew the Google deal.

This had to be the easiest deal Google ever made with any company: "Let us help improve your search scores and run ads against your sites in our results. In return for that, we're buying 5% of your company". How could anyone screw up a deal that sweet? Leave it to AOL to find a way. Google is taking a huge loss on the deal, writing it off to the tune of perhaps $500-750 million, nearly as much as the Bebo purchase cost AOL. Talk about fiscal irresponsibility...

AOL didn't buy Yahoo!. Yahoo! didn't buy AOL.

As I've said many times over the years, I think an AOL-Yahoo! mash-up would be match made in heaven given audiences of similar ages, income levels and interests (shopping, chat, email, social communities, etc). I can't see why this deal shouldn't be done. But leave it to the perennially indecisive Jerry Yang, Yahoo's former CEO, to sit on his hands instead of doing more than "talking to" AOL, and leave it to Yang's spiritual twin, Jeffery Bewkes, to engage in the same hand-sitting while encouraging the same fruitless "talks". What a waste of both companies combined potential - which I think would be a marvel previously unseen in this world.

AOL leaves Journals and Hometown users hanging.

The way AOL handled the closing of AOL Journals and Hometowns was a perfect disgrace - and a typical example of how AOL alienates even their most loyal customers, hurting their bottom line in the long run more than their stupidest purchases ever could. Users of these sites were given scant notice of AOL Journals and Hometowns closing down - about 30 days - and no way whatsoever to automatically download or transfer files to another site.

Feeling for them, I searched the Internet for a program that could handle the download process without users having to cut and paste perhaps thousands of posts into Word or other cumbersome Office and note-taking programs.

Joe Manna soon pitched in with more tips to help AOL users get their files, and finally, one week after AOL gave notice, they finally teamed with Google to get user's files moved to Blogger. Unsatisfied with Blogger as a new platform, many users chose to simply download and save their files instead.

After Hometown closed, People Connection, Joe's blog and my blog continued to get hit with desperate pleas from AOL users who missed the deadline. In a last-minute save, Joe O. of taimantis.com, a former Hometown user, did some research and found AOL left the Hometown files up on their FTP servers after the deadline. He contacted me and Joe Manna to tell us how to download the files, and Joe Manna and I did what we could to get the word out to AOL users. Of all of AOL's blunders, this was the most inconsiderate one of all.

Related posts: AOL's Top 5 Blunders of 2007 and AOL's Top 5 Blunders of 2006.

Last updated 12-7-08 with more information on active AOL FTP servers via Joe Manna at DygiScape.

Today Joe at taimantis.com is pointing us to a page he put up for AOL Hometown users who forgot to download their files by Oct. 31st, the day AOL shut down both AOL Hometown and AOL Journals. He also forgot to download his Hometown files by Oct. 31st. When he finally remembered he went to grab them and they were still there - AOL did not delete them. He thinks everyone else who missed the Oct. 31st deadline can still grab their files, too and he even gives you quick, easy steps on how to do it.

Update, 11-25-08: Tested Joe's method myself today on some AOL Hometowns using the free program, FTP Commander, that he recommends. It works like a charm - the files AOL said they were deleting by Oct. 31st are in fact, still there, and it's easy to transfer them to your computer. See more comments about it here.

Update, 12-7-08: Joe Manna contacted Joe at Taimantis not long after I published this. The latter Joe put in a guest post for the former Joe on the topic. JM also made a spreadsheet that lists all active FTP servers on AOL so you can see for yourself what's going on. Enjoy.

The options you've been given for preserving your years of writing, photo-swapping and friendship-making on AOL Journals are not all that great: you can either download your files or transfer them to a new web host named Blogger. That's all.

Not only are your options limited, since AOL put little thought into helping you move elsewhere, some of you are also having problems transferring your files.

This post is about how to capture your data if every other method has failed you.

The good news is you still have 12 days left - almost two full weeks - to download your files. The bad news is you must get cracking now or your files will be deleted by AOL on Oct. 31st. This can be time-consuming, so be sure to set aside some time to get it done.

Using Notepad - or Word - to copy your HTML files.

On using Notepad...

Notepad automatically saves your files as text files unless you specify otherwise. I suggest you save every page on your journal with Notepad as a text file. Doing so will ensure your files can easily be uploaded to another service.

The neat thing about Notepad is you can also save your CSS and HTML files with it...just change the file's extension. To do so, click File->Save As, then type the name of the document and add either .css, .htm or .html to the file name.

On using Word the right way...

Unless you save your raw HTML pages correctly, Word will use the Document (DOC) format to save your files, which can mess up your HTML when you try to transfer it to another blog or journal service.

If you use Word, make sure you save your files as plain text files. Plain text files are preferred, since they can easily be uploaded to another blog or journal service. To do so, in Word select File->Save as Text. In Word 2007, select the Word logo in the upper right corner and then select Save As.

Saving your files as HTML requires you to open each saved web page in a web browser, to right-click each page and to copy the source to Notepad or Wordpad (making double work for you!), or to hunt through your saved data manually to find the text file that contains your HTML. If you want to make it this hard on yourself, in Word select File->Save as Web Page. In Word 2007, select the Word logo in the upper right corner and then select Save As.

Downloading your Blogger blog to your hard drive...

To save a copy of your entire blog once it's on Blogger, follow the instructions here.

Getting a domain name for your blog on Blogger...

Once you've imported your AOL Journal to Blogger, this Blogger Help page gives you instructions on how to use a custom domain name (yourname.com as opposed to yourname.blogspot.com) with their blog service.

On using Blogger as an import/export tool...

This is a bit naughty, but you can use Blogger as an import/export tool. If you don't want a Blogger blog, but you do want an easier way to transfer your journal to another hosting service, this might be your ticket - as long as your journal transfers to Blogger without any problems.

First, following the simple steps on this Blogger Help page for importing your journal to their platform, then follow these instructions to get it onto Wordpress instead. Doing it this way completely automates everything...you just have to click a few buttons, type your current journal or blog address in here and there, then wait for your transfers to finish. When you're done, you can delete your Blogger blog if you want by following the instructions here.

(AOL Pictures is closing down on Dec. 31st)

How to save pictures stored on AOL Pictures or AOL FTP...

Hint: Pictures take up a lot of space on your computer's hard drive, so ensure you have enough space before you get started. Click Start->My Computer, then right-click the hard drive you wish to save your pictures to and choose Properties.

A small window will open with a small, color graphic that shows you how much space is free. You may need up to one Gigabyte of space or more for your pictures, so make sure that much space is still available.

It helps if beforehand you create a new folder on your computer to hold your pictures. To do so, click Start->My Documents, then right-click on an empty white space and choose Create New Folder. The new folder will be named "New Folder" by default. To change it click on the name and type in the name you want.

To save your pictures, while browsing your journal in a web browser, right-click each picture and choose Save Picture As... (IE wording) or Save Image As (Firefox wording).

If you have room on your hard drive for some but not all of your pictures, you can download a small amount of them at a time to your computer, then upload them go a free photo hosting service like Flickr or Photobucket, then delete them from your hard drive, download another batch and repeat until you are done.

How to transfer pictures without downloading them...

With a free Photobucket account, you don't have to save pictures to your computer at all. Just log into Photobucket and keep the Album page open in one tab or window; in another tab or window open your journal page, then right-click each picture on your pages and choose Properties (in IE). Find and copy the URL and paste it into Photobucket's Web URL upload slot. In Firefox right-click each picture and choose Copy Image Location. Once you've copied the URL paste it into Photobucket's Web URL upload slot.

Photobucket includes a mass uploader with technically unlimited uploads, but the more pictures you upload at once, the longer it will take, so I suggest not uploading more than one picture at a time on dial-up, or more than 10-20 at a time at higher speeds.

A question for AOL Journal users...

Does anyone reading this want me to post about free journal and blog services you can transfer your files to besides Blogger and Wordpress? If so leave me a comment; enough "aye" votes and I may write one. I tend to shy away from recommending any blog or journal service because there is too much politics involved in making such recommendations. If there is a strong demand to know about more free services, though, I may try to fulfill it.

Hi, J-Land members. Good news for you today - instead of downloading your journals using FTP, a traditional web browser, WGet or Backstreet Browser (methods that all have their drawbacks) as of this morning you can now export (that is, "transfer") your journal directly to Blogger by following the simple steps on this Blogger Help page. If you want to then export your blog to Wordpress, just follow these instructions. As I find more platforms you can export your new Blogger blog to, I will add more links to this post.

Last updated 10-15-2008 with "Copy To" steps.

AOL Hometown and Journals will close down on Oct. 31st. All journals and uploaded content will be deleted, so download your files from AOL's servers as soon as possible. What follows is a tutorial for Windows users on how to use BackStreet Browser to download your files from AOL.

UPDATE 10-8-2008: Hi, J-Land members. Thanks for stopping by. Good news for you today - instead of downloading your journals using FTP, a traditional web browser, WGet or Backstreet Browser (methods that all have their drawbacks) as of this morning you can now export (that is, "transfer") your journal directly to Blogger by following the simple steps on this Blogger Help page. If you want to then export your blog to Wordpress, just follow these instructions. As I find more platforms you can export your new Blogger blog to, I will add more links to this post.

The best way to back up your AOL Journals and Hometown websites is with an absolutely free website downloader called BackStreet Browser. I tested this downloader on the Magic Smoke Blog at AOL and my own blogs and it worked perfectly. Downloading your files is fast, easy and does not require any action on your part once you set BackStreet Browser up. Let's get started.

1. Download and install BackStreet Browser.

Download the BackStreet Browser and save it your Desktop, then click on the saved file to run the Installer and follow the prompts it gives you. The downloader will be ready to launch in just a minute.

2. Select the website to download.

Attention dial-up users: If you use a dial-up connection, see this screen shot for instructions on how to set it up.

The first screen that pops up (if it doesn't, go to File -> Tools or click on New to start a new project) will ask you to set your Project Properties. Copy and paste the link to your AOL journal or website into the box next to where it says URL.

Type the name of your project next to where it says Title.

If you're happy with the default Folder location you can leave it alone; otherwise click on the little yellow folder to the right of where it says Folder, then navigate to the folder you want to save your files to.

3. Adjust BackStreet Browser settings.

The tab you're on near the middle of the window says Load. You can leave the Load settings alone or change them if you like. Repeat for tabs to the right of Load: File Filter, URL Filter, the Connection tab (which you can use to connect through FTP or an HTTP proxy) and Others (which you can use to keep AOL's folder structure or to create a single folder to save all your files).

FYI: I left all of these settings alone. The default settings should work fine for most users.

4. Download your website.

When you're done tweaking your settings, press OK. The website download will start automatically. Depending on how many files you're downloading and the content of each file, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour to download all of your files.

5. View and work with your files.

When the download is finished, there will be a side panel in the BackStreet Browser window with a folder in it. The name of the top folder will be Workspace and it will have a button with a little plus sign next to it. Click the button to expand the folder tree. The next folder will contain the files you downloaded from AOL and will also have a button with a plus sign next to it. Click the button to show the folders beneath it, and keep repeating until you get to the files themselves.

Click on image to expand it.

Click on the files and the URLs to your actual pages will show up in the right hand panel. Move your cursor to the right-hand panel and click on a link to open it in the BackStreet Browser. It's that simple.

When you're done BackStreet browser will automatically "save your workspace" so you don't have to, but if you want you can click File and Save Workspace, give your workspace a name and choose where you want to save it.

6. Copy and save your files to a new location.

BackStreet Browser automatically makes a back up of every file you download and saves it to Program Files->BackStreet Browser-> Data, but if you want to save a second copy of your Journal or Hometown files to your computer, here's how.

After the download finishes and all of your files are automatically relinked, click the Copy To button along the top left of the window.

A box will open that will ask you browse to the folder you want to save your downloaded files to. Either select a folder from the choices given, or click the Create button to create a new folder.

If you choose to create a new folder, it will automatically be given the name "New Folder". Click on that name to change it. I changed my folder's name to "My AOL Journal".

The Sometimes Blog has a new tutorial up that covers all the finer points on how to use BackStreet Browser. It's an excellent guide to help you learn exactly how BackStreet works - go check it out!

Vish, the Editor of AOL Journals who runs the Magic Smoke blog, has written repeatedly that AOL is working with the people who run Google's Blogger platform to get all of your content imported to them by Oct. 7th at the earliest. I have no idea if this is true. I'll try to contact both Vish and other Editor at AOL writers for more details. To quote Vish's most recent post on it:

To Paul, yes a copy of your journal will be made on Blogger. Your journal will still be available till Nov 1st. Also, the migration will be opened up to Journals users starting on or after Oct. 7th. We will be using this week to iron out any kinks in the process.

To Sherri - I would not worry about the migration too much. It should be fairly straightforward. Blogger will also have a helpdesk that you can send email to, if you have any issues and a live real person will respond and help out. So, all efforts have been made to minimize the pain.

To Yasmin (cayasm) and everybody else - Your journals will be copied over in its ENTIRETY (entries, comments, about me). So, anything else you hear is not true.

10-3-08, an update: Not much of an update, just more information found here concerning the alleged migration of AOL users to Blogger:

Vish, who currently runs the Magic Smoke blog, was disturbed by her employer's decision to axe AOL journals, with no plan of any kind in place for the people using the service. They were just gonna close up shop.

Vish contacted John Panzer, formerly a developer at AOL, now working at Blogger. John agreed to write an 'ap[p]' that would allow AOL users to transfer their blogs to Blogger. That ap[p] is currently being tested, and should be available to AOL users as soon as October 7th. I wouldn't hold my breath.

The ap[p] will transfer the entire contents of one AOL blog - entries, comments, and sidebar information - to one, brand new blogger blog. It is a one shot. There will be no way to import to an existing blog, nor will there be any ability to pick and choose entries. If you have more than one AOL blog, you will repeat the process anew for each.

It's Oct. 3rd as I write this. If AOL is going to move everyone's blogs over to Blogger they better do it fast. AOL users have just 28 days left to get everything off of their servers. Talk about short notice.

AOL provides no way to download Hometown pages through FTP, while, conversely, FTP is pretty much the only way you can download AOL Journals. It's utterly unprofessional of AOL to not give users a way to automatically export their journals to another blogging platform.

Clue Train, AOL: Every blogging platform includes such export options, including LiveJournal, Wordpress and Blogspot. Every blogging platform except yours. It's a perfect disgrace to leave your users dangling like this.

While using FTP lets you download multiple files at once, you can't exceed whatever bandwidth cap your ISP holds you at, so for those of you have journaled on AOL since 1996 (how many of you are there? - let me know in the comments), it's going to be a long, arduous process to download your content. I don't envy any of you.

To recap what I know so far:

What Happened

AOL is booting all 100,000 AOL users off of Hometown and AOL Journals by Oct. 31st. If you haven't downloaded your journal or Hometown content by the 31st, it will be deleted by AOL, so please find a way to download your files as fast as you can.

Download it well before the 31st if you can, since many of your journals are massive and could take days, if not an entire week, to finish downloading via FTP or other methods (outlined below). If you don't have the time to download the files yourself, consider getting a friend to do it, or seriously, hiring someone. Otherwise you'll lose what you have stored on AOL forever.

What You Can Do

There are a variety of ways to download your journal, including FTP. Depending on your technical experience and how much time and patience you have, some methods are better than others. Below are all the ways that I'm aware of to preserve your journal.

#1) AOL suggests you use FTP.

Yesterday I compiled a list of free, highly-rated FTP clients you can use to download your journal. To keep you from having to leave this page, here's the list again:

1. Flash FXP. From the publisher's description: FlashFXP uses a familiar, Explorer-like interface that even the most novice user can master in minutes.
2. Core FTP. From the publisher's description: This fast and free FTP client .... is now free for business, personal and educational use.
3. FileZilla. From the publisher's description: The program lets you transfer files and navigate among folders, Web sites, and your computer .... [and] enables you to perform multiple file transfers simultaneously.
4. FTP Commander. From the publisher's description: This software enables you to perform multiple file transfers simultaneously.
5. FTP Surfer. From the publisher's description: FTP Surfer is a professional FTP client featuring an Internet Explorer style user interface including an address bar, history, and favorites menu.
6. WS_FTP Lite. From my friend skellorg's description: I've used WS_FTP (Lite, which is the free version) for close to ten years, so I wouldn't recommend anything else.

AOL's instructions for downloading your journal with FTP are here.

Advantages: It's possible to download many files at once with FTP.

Disadvantages: 1.) You must be logged into your AOL account with the client-side software (such as your copy AOL 9.0) to grab your files with FTP. 2.) It's time-consuming. 3.) Some AOL users don't have the technical expertise to use FTP. For instance, I couldn't tell you the first thing about it. I've never used FTP in my life.

#2) Joe Manna suggests you use a command line program.

Joe is a former employee of AOL. This is his blog. He suggests you use a command line program called WGet to download your AOL files. His instructions are here.

Advantages: WGet is great if you're comfortable working from the command line.

Disadvantages: 1.) It's time-consuming. 2.) It will cause a ton of traffic on AOL's servers, which, as Joe already mentioned, could result in AOL blocking you from connecting to finish downloading your journal. 3.) If you can't work from the command line, then this method isn't the one for you.

#3) AOL UK suggests you download your journal using your browser of choice.

As time-consuming as it is, this is the one method AOL users should try if they aren't happy with methods #1 or #2. Here's why: 1.) It's really easy. 2.) You can choose exactly how and where you want to save your files, and exactly which files you want to save. AOL UK provides detailed instructions here. Attention Opera users: Follow the same instructions AOL provides for downloading your files with Firefox.

#4) You Can Also Try My Method

In my next post (now live!) I'll show you how to use one more method. It's simpler and less time-consuming than any of the methods mentioned above, but there are a few things you have to know to do it right. Check it out.

AOL has announced that AOL Hometown and Journals are shutting down on Oct. 31st. The first I heard of it was in an email today from "C":

This morning me and the millions of other AOHell users who have Journals at AOL received an email saying effective Nov. 1, there would not longer be an AOL Journals. Do you know of any blog sites (free or for a fee) that would allow me to transfer my current AOL Journal to their site?

Hope you can help me. Your site is awesome.

To answer her question: No, I don't know of any blog sites that will let AOL users transfer journals to them.

Me and Joe Manna, a blogger who used to work for AOL, seem to agree that AOL should let you export your journal in a comma-delimited (CSV) or XML file format so you can transfer your blog to Wordpress.com, Blogger.com and even LiveJournal.com. I spent hours today looking for a way to back up your AOL blogs into a CSV or XML file format but I came up empty-handed.

I'll publish a post soon explaining how to back up your AOL journals using a method that most people won't think of right off the bat - unless Joe comes up with a better method than mine. My how-to is almost ready to post, but Joe wrote tonight that he's updating soon on how to export your AOL journals, and he mentions that using FTP to export AOL Hometown blogs is actually useless because Hometown no longer allows access through FTP. Joe might have a better method than I do for backing up your journals so I'm going to wait for his post to arrive before I publish mine.

How to back up your journals in the meantime...

In order to follow AOL's instructions to back up journals you'll need an FTP client. The most popular FTP clients aren't free. I hate to think of all the money AOL users will waste to download their AOL blogs - a one-time event that might leave them $30-$40 lighter for an FTP client that they may never use again.

With that in mind, I came up with a list of absolutely free FTP clients to choose from. No matter what you do, please don't spend a dime to backup your blog.

Absolutely Free FTP Clients

1. Flash FXP. From the publisher's description: FlashFXP uses a familiar, Explorer-like interface that even the most novice user can master in minutes.
2. Core FTP. From the publisher's description: This fast and free FTP client .... is now free for business, personal and educational use.
3. FileZilla. From the publisher's description: The program lets you transfer files and navigate among folders, Web sites, and your computer .... [and] enables you to perform multiple file transfers simultaneously.
4. FTP Commander. From the publisher's description: This software enables you to perform multiple file transfers simultaneously.
5. FTP Surfer. From the publisher's description: FTP Surfer is a professional FTP client featuring an Internet Explorer style user interface including an address bar, history, and favorites menu.
6. WS_FTP Lite. From my friend skellorg's description: I've used WS_FTP (Lite, which is the free version) for close to ten years, so I wouldn't recommend anything else.

If you've come up with a better way than FTP to back up your AOL journal please let us know about it in the comments, or send me an email.