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Social Networking (the Shorter Version) Past, Present, Future

Both Sides of the Table

Brands didn’t advertise their web pages they advertised “AOL Keywords.&# If you were a newly minted, venture-backed consumer Internet company you had to have a deal with AOL to reach your customers. Companies like GeoCities & Tripod built tools that let you publish web pages that could be discoverable by others.

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What the Past Can Tell Us About the Future of Social Networking

Both Sides of the Table

AOL was controlled by one company and the Internet was distributed. AOL controlled the services, taxed companies to access users and decided what was good or bad. If you were a newly minted, venture-backed consumer Internet company you had to have a deal with AOL to reach your customers. GeoCities, Tripod & Yahoo!