Re: OT: What would it take to make AOL impressive to Mac users?
Re: OT: What would it take to make AOL impressive to Mac users?
- Subject: Re: OT: What would it take to make AOL impressive to Mac users?
- From: Chilton Webb <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 09:07:29 -0600
Hmmm.......
Ask the accounting group for the screen names of your original members,
and anyone who was a member before around 1991 when you shipped a
Windows product for the first time. They were all diehard Mac users. You
still have a few left, including me (member #32). Ask them why they
bothered to stick around, despite their lowly status in the AOL
hierarchy.
For me:
The first thing I'd do is stop promoting your windows product to your
Mac clients. Every time I sign on I get some kind of ad for the new and
improved 7.0 product, only to find that it doesn't support Mac users.
As an AOL user, I have a number of suggestions for improvements that
I've sent off to various customer service and other email addresses in
the past. I've never received any kind of email that the suggestions
were even being considered, so I'm glad to hear AOL is looking at being
innovative on the Mac again.
If you really want to be innovative, though, try creating a compelling
reason for broadband users to keep using AOL. I have a cable modem
myself, and no desire to move to AOL DSL. But I do keep the AOL client
around because occasionally I travel, and access to your nationwide
local access numbers is nice. Occasionally I need to send email to
someone who is a fellow Mac AOL user, but can't do so outside of AOL
without the attachments being stripped or mutated in some way, so that's
another reason to keep it around. Other than that last reason, I really
don't have a reason to keep AOL on my system.
Also, look into whether you can revive lost archives or not. There's at
least one massive archive of data from a forum in AOL that was Mac-Only,
and which was not only abandoned by AOL's support, half of the files
were removed entirely, without the forum admin even knowing it was going
to happen. Granted, that was a few years ago, but I know it created a
lot of bad blood, on the order of probably 200+ Mac developers. Only one
of those developers is still an AOL user, that I know of. The forums and
chat were the things that kept many users on AOL, so I'd look at some
way to improve the interface to these places in your system.
I'd try to create compelling reasons for people to keep using AOL in a
world that offers most of the features you offer in other forms. Chat is
a good example, as the free AIM client from AOL.com is far easier to use
than the AOL AIM client available in version 5 of the AOL software.
Personal Filing cabinet could become more iDisk-like, allowing you to
store your files there. You've got Pictures, well, see about tying that
in with iPhoto. The Toolbar's features should be available from the
dock's icon. The Welcome screen should be customizable. Favorite Places
and the Address Book both need to tie in with existing software.
Locations within AOL should be accessible via distinct icons you could
save to the desktop or in the Favorites folder. Use Apple's Address Book
instead of the AOL one, or at least allow the user to merge/sync the two.
Also, boot whoever is using the 'chilton' screen name off and give it me
that one.
That'd get you started :-)
-Chilton
On Tuesday, March 26, 2002, at 02:39 PM, AOLDev wrote:
I have an opportunity to influence the business team within AOL with
regards to their Mac OS X client that's coming right around the
corner. Our goal is to create an outstanding product that does not
make Mac user's feel like second-class citizens. We also want to
create a client that is better than the Windows client and makes use of
the Mac OS X-specific features.
That said, what types of features would most impress Mac users within
the AOL client? All areas are fair game:
The AOL Toolbar
Instant Messaging
BuddyList
Chat
Email
Personal Filing Cabinet
The Welcome Screen
You've got Pictures
AOL Radio
AOL Broadband
Favorite Places
Address Book
We've got a schedule that we're working towards, and good ideas, but we
felt it would really be of benefit for us to inquire of the Mac
community. Any ideas and suggestions are appreciated.
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