AOL is getting desperate

AOL is trying everything they can to get more customers so they don’t look like the black sheep of the AOL Time Warner mega empire. They’re planning on limiting online access to several popular magazines exclusively to AOL customers. They plan on releasing a VoiceMail service. And AOL plans on ditching RealNetworks in favor of Dolby AAC, an apparent cost-cutting move. And they’re finally joining the 21st century and offering AOL for broadband.

Listen, AOL: To quote the article where I got these links, “Maybe the biggest problem isn’t that you’re not offering enough content and services, but that your core customer base is 35 million dialup subscribers, most of whom are sick of chronic access and connection problems (not to mention bloatware). You waited a little too long to take broadband seriously, and you may not recover from that mistake.”

I concur. There is nothing — read again: NOTHING — that AOLers have that I either a) can’t find better versions of elsewhere cheaper, or b) couldn’t live without anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if AOL completely brings down the AOL-TW empire.