On the Way to the Web (eBook)

Michael A. Banks is the author of more than 40 books, among them several titles that deal with Internet topics, including The eBay Survival Guide; Web Psychos, Stalkers, and Pranksters; The Modem Reference; PC Confidential; and Welcome to CompuServe. He is coauthor of CROSLEY: The Story of Two Brothers and the Business Empire that Transformed the Nation (Clerisy, 2006), the biography of twentieth-century industrialist/entrepreneur and communications magnate Powel Crosley, Jr. (This book made the New York Times extended bestseller list, the Wall Street Journal hardcover business book bestseller list, and the Business Week bestseller list. Having sold 45,000 copies during its first three months of existence, it received a full-page writeup in the February 12, 2007, issue of Publishers Weekly.) He has written hundreds of magazine articles and served as a contributing editor and columnist for Computer Shopper, Windows, and other magazines. Banks has been online since 1979, when he caught his first glimpse of CompuServe. During the 1980s, he was involved in a number of Internet firsts, including online book promotion. He has helped maintain bulletin board systems, was a special interest group (SIG) manager on DELPHI for a number of years, and worked in a consulting capacity for CompuServe and The Source. He wrote one of the first guides to online services, The Modem Reference (Brady/Simon & Schuster), which introduced hundreds of thousands of users to modems and the online world. Because of his reputation as a modem and telecommunications expert, GEnie and BIX (Byte Information Exchange) created special online forums for Banks early blogs. He has also advised a number of businesses in the area of online marketing.

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 7
Foreword 11
About the Author 19
About the Technical Reviewer 20
Preface 21
Acknowledgments 22
Introduction 23
Looking Back: Where Did It All Begin? 26
In the Beginning . . . 27
Lo! 30
In the Money 32
The First Online Content 33
The First Information Superhighway 36
Making Contact with CompuServe 40
The Source 50
Dis-content and Conflict 64
Videotex 64
Growing Pains atThe Source 66
Customer Loyalty and Growth 68
Usenet Newsgroups 69
Microcomputer Bulletin Boards 70
Evolution 74
Games 76
Pirate Software 77
Online Gaming 77
Early File Sharing and User Publishing 78
Chat 79
Special-Interest Groups 81
CompuServe Forums 82
Online Experiments 85
Gateways 87
New Kids on the Block 89
Trials and Errors 91
Something Old, Nothing New 92
Newspapers and Newsletters Online 93
Consumer Movement 94
Encyclopedias Online 96
More Experiments 97
Meanwhile, Back at the ARPA Ranch . . . 100
The SecondWave 102
DELPHI 103
More Regional Online Services 105
The First Dot-Com Bust 107
GEnie 108
AOL DNA, Part 1 112
AOL DNA, Part 2: Gameline and ControlVideo Corporation 112
AOL DNA, Part 3: Playnet 113
AOL Gestation 117
The Third Wave 124
American People/Link (Plink) 124
BIX (Byte Information eXchange) 127
USA Today Sports Center 128
The WELL 128
Quantum Link (Q-Link) 129
Trin-what? 134
In with the New, Out with the Old 136
Great Product, Great Customers— Where’s the Money? 136
Great Expectations 137
The Entrepreneur Who Wouldn’t Go Away, Redux 137
AppleLink–Personal Edition 138
PC-Link 140
Sour Apples 141
The CompetitionWakes 143
Front Ends 143
Another Online Casualty 147
AOL Evolves: Expansion, Integration, and Success 148
Independence 148
Promenade 149
The Great Commingling 150
AOL for PCs: DOS and Windows 152
Planning Ahead 154
Marketing AOL 155
Prodigy: The Flat-Rate Pioneer Who Just Didn’t Get It 159
In the Beginning . . . 159
Videotex Again? 161
New & Improved
Online Advertising? 164
Prodigy Call Home 166
Censored! 167
“Of CourseYou Realize . . . This Means War!” 169
No, Not Spyware! 170
“Didn’t Prodigy Invent the Internet?” 171
Files,Anyone? 172
Turning On the Meter 173
Chat, at Last 175
Moving to the Net 177
International Expansion 178
Apple Replay 181
Opening Up the Internet 181
Online Services and the Internet 185
One Step Forward,Two Steps Back 189
Where Are They Now? 190
Afterword: Omissions,Additions, and Corrections 196
Online Timeline 198
1945 198
1957 198
1960 198
1961 199
1962 199
1963 199
1964 199
1965 200
1966 200
1967 200
1968 200
1969 201
1970 201
1971 201
1972 201
1973 202
1974 202
1975 203
1976 203
1977 203
1978 203
1979 204
1980 205
1981 205
1982 206
1983 207
1984 208
1985 209
1986 209
1987 209
1988 210
1989 210
1990 211
1991 211
1992 212
1993 212
1994 213
Bibliography 215
Founders 217
Index 222