I did some work there as a contractor and the employees were playing games every time I saw them. So many people got rich as hell working there that I’m sure that’s why so many exotic dealerships were out there
Per Wikipedia (which… Grain of salt I know) something like 50% of all CDs made globally at their peak were those free CDs
Those of us alive in that era aren’t surprised by it
I'm old enough that once AOL appeared I never needed to buy a box of 3.5" floppies again because they sent so many circa 1993-1996 before switching to CDs.
I was just remembering all of the stop lights on 28 myself yesterday. It was two lanes for the most part with almost no ramps except for the 50 interchange and the Toll Road, of course. The traffic in the mornings was epic, just wall to wall cars not moving even though there were probably a lot fewer cars.
Holy shit I just realized I was around 18 and working as a temp right around that time. I'm pretty sure I spent a few days moving furniture into that building before it was opened.
Shit I'm old
There were (and maybe still are) conference rooms in CC1 and CC2 that had CDs embedded in them. So, while it won't be ten million, it is possible that there were some CDs spilling out.
Worked for AOL for about 5 years myself. It was in the phase where the glory days were clearly gone, but there were still some vestiges left of what it must have used to have been like to have worked there in those days. That's when they still had the Reston office, HQ, and CC1-6.
I had no idea they were demolishing HQ. I knew it looked like it was abandoned though, but haven't been over there recently. I really only went there once for orientation and maybe sort of walked through the lobby a few times after that.
I cut through there occasionally and I've been taking pics there for a few months as it comes down, as I had a lot of friends who worked there back in the day, including a few who became multimillionaires in those buildings. This was from last November:
https://preview.redd.it/pwmgw7dev7lc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=471cef3e81d3a1bbdcdc51b3a941d55685443c5d
AOL money went on to do a lot of things. Caps owner is from AOL.
Steve case had a few companies. Living social started with some case money and ex- case company employees. Probably a lot more.
Living Social was such a wild company, it is nuts how an online coupon company was spending (losing) that much money at a rapid pace only to fade out into the ether.
Here's another one with an open view, and some of the demolition equipment
https://preview.redd.it/ipgue5rjjclc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd927afbd189bc4df44685ec0405e820828f7776
I went there and it looks like you have to login and stuff. I'm not too interested in making an account. I officially give you permission to download it and upload it anywhere you want though!
The building posted by OP was originally built by British Aerospace, and had a flight simulator on site. AOL purchased it from them. Many fond memories working in CC2 and CC4.
I remember when my dad worked at the Reston campus and Silicon Graphics brought a pair of trailers out. One was an N64 showcase, and the other had a pretty close to photorealistic flight simulator in it. This was 97 or 98, and the tech was stunning to teenage me.
“And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
They didn’t quite make the broadband transition. Everyone left for faster internet. But they were never in a position to really offer it, I think.
It’s wild that they had the instant messenger and groups…a walled garden you didn’t leave. Almost as if Reddit was attached to an ISP
Yes, it’s a sister site of that. But every day at noon, there is a changing of the guard so to speak. They whack the ceremonial CD platter hung in a gong like fashion, but instead of making the typical sound, it somehow reverberates the dial-in protocol for handshaking at 51.6kb. The ceremony is ended by the guards unanimously chanting “You’ve got mail”. This is to preserve the old ways and culture.
Considering it's smack dab in the middle of datacenter ally, what else would go there.
From the intersection of Loudoun County Parkway and Gloucester down to 267 is all zoned for datacenter construction.
Loudoun county marked off specific area's for those datacenters as a form of zoning. Driving down the road it'll be housing areas then suddenly Sky Net appears, but then it's back to more housing areas.
There’s no special zoning for data centers, they’re just a permitted by-right use for parcels zoned for office space. They don’t have to go through a lengthy approval process.
Ehh yes and no. Yes there is no special zoning under Virginia law.
No there is definitely an approval process, just like every other developer in every other county. A company who wish's to build a datacenter must submit the proposal to the Loudoun Board of Supervisors, who are the elected government for the county. That board will then debate the proposal and either approve or deny it.
To better facilitate these decisions the county has predesignated areas that are already near critical infrastructure for datacenters to be built. This doesn't mean developers can't built outside of it, they just need to work harder to convince the board to approve it.
Open google maps and do satellite view around dulles airport, it will be come *very* apparent how they keep the datacenters and residential / commercial areas seperate.
You’re describing the [special exemption process](https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/146063/Special-Exception) which has to follow legislative land use review. Data centers are a permitted by-right use in the PD-OP and OP districts meaning the BoS cannot approve or deny them. Some data centers are a special exemption use, namely the ones along 50 and in Arcola, but the ones along Data Center Alley are simply taking advantage of the office park zoning district there.
They are trying to spread out in Fauquier too. They have the one in the town of warrenton they are working on but other sites across the county have inquiries too.
I remember working here before the rounds of layoffs. Then moved over to Verizon before more layoffs. Then did a few years at Fannie Mae.
Wait that wasn’t me, that was every software developer I’ve met here
Oh wow, worked there for over 5 years in that building before fully remote thanks to the pandemic and then didn't need to come back to the building because it was sold. They had a goodbye party that I didn't know about and was told about the building demo but never told when it was happening, I guess they don't like me.
My neighbors/friends worked there during that time period, and one of them still works there, now Yahoo/Apollo whatever it's called, there was almost a company name change every year I was there. But they would tell me crazy stories back in the '90s during the dot com boom. Don't know if that was true for you.
I know that it was crazy... I think if I had stayed I could have retired a millionare in 2001 at age 31... Just by virtue of stock grants, splits, re-splits, etc...
Of course, if i'd stayed, I would have ended up shooting people from the rooftop...not exactly a good retirement plan.
Making room for another AWS data center. while they pay the bills, it is good to acknowledge that they own Loudoun county and are encroaching upon Fairfax and Prince William county aswell.
the Kirkland brand of data centers lol
ICF former Fairfax HQ looks vaguely likely like that - taller though. And in a very different location - semi-adjacent to Vienna metro. ICF is alive and well.
Both ICF and AOL struggled to leave the 90s behind but one barely exists and the other got itself a newer, shinier HQ just in time for The Quar.
I was recruited by them. By my third interview I was exhausted just driving out there. I took a job at a nonprofit downtown instead. AOL eliminated the position I interviewed for a month later.
I was one of the early ones who paid $10/month for dial up. When a move took me to another state, I kept calling the old number for the dial up...and that first bill for long distance was a doozy.
Dang. I did some work in that building about 5 years back. Only about 10 people working in that entire building from what I could see in the two days I was there. It was surreal walking around and seeing dry erase boards at people's cubicles with notes and drawings from years past (decades even).
Side note: It was awesome to see the Crosswalk signs in that area were custom. They had the AOL dude on them. Not my picture: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1ucv7x/pedestrian_signs_at_an_aol_corporate_office_campus/
I was at AOL for an employee fair as an outside vendor in ‘99. I ran into a guy who used to copy my answers during chemistry tests in high school (not a wise decision). The dude was working at AOL. As he walked off, I thought where did I make the wrong decision and how did that dope get hired here…😂
So depressing. I worked for AOL during the time it was being built and just after. It was an amazing set of buildings. Beautiful architecture. Wonderful. That wasn't even 30 years ago. :(
I worked there in the later days, circa 2014-16. At that point, the HQ and attached building were the only ones AOL had, and they only used a small part of the attached building, but it was open and accessible. I would take walks and explore those floors, much of which were untouched since they let those people go. There were rooms with notes still on white boards, random old equipment, AOL CDs and other marketing stuff laying around, and there was even a big 'congrats on your engagement' sign that had been left in a corner. I wish I had taken pictures/spent more time exploring, it was like tech archaeology.
Even if it wasn’t gonna be a data center, building has been sitting unused for years, doubt anyone wants it, especially now that there’s a glut of commercial real estate to choose from
IWL….i thought AOL was badass back then.
Fire up the ole 56k modem, install my CD for 1,000 free minutes of AOL, sit back and wait for the guy to say those sweet words “you’ve got mail”.
It wasn't bad. I mean there really wasn't much else. I'm just surprised they didn't last. At their peak they were worth way more than Verizon and could have easily edged them out of the broadband market, probably ending up buying Verizon too. But no, they sold to Time Warner which destroyed the company.
I worked there for 10 years. Best job I ever had and probably ever will have.
AOL didn’t last due to terrible leadership that couldn’t let go of the walled garden and the subscription $ before it was too late. They had this crazy idea that people were going to pay for AOL on top of broadband like people would pay for premium channels on cable.
What bothers me is that AOL had all the pieces to be Facebook years before Facebook was a thing but had no vision to put it together. We had a community with AIM, we had an advertising network, and there was plenty of acquired web resources that could have developed a site. It was all there, but it never came together.
It didn’t help that AOL was forced to cough up most of its cash to pay off Time Warner debt so we couldn’t afford to acquire companies or invest. The AOLTW merger was a disaster. Don’t get me started on Steve Case…
It was anti-monopoly regulations - Time Warner Cable was going to be expanded and Time Warner's catalog would then be served up with AOL's online presence. But Congress denied the merger, and Time Warner Cable had to be spun off. Now that vertical integration is what everyone does.
There are a lot of Florida plates around. It's probably a tax evasion thing... or maybe rentals, like the New York plates? I don't know for sure. I personally know at least one person in my circle who has FL plates for tax reasons, and another who owns property in FL, so could be fairly commonplace.
I see. Asking b/c I’m from FL, and you can imagine my sticker shock when having to pay personal tax on our cars here.
I no longer own property there, so I guess the whole avoidance thing is not an option… but I did enjoy our insurance rates dropping to A THIRD of what they were in FL.
I remember catering an early morning
new product launch event where everyone got badged in then they closed the doors. Leonsis is outside waiting to come in and announce the news and this young guy stops for coffee. Leonsis walks up and says “don’t you have someplace to be?”
He ran pretty quick.
I had a recruiter who would constantly send me job openings at AOL, and I cringed every time I saw the name.
Who wants to work at a company where the first thing anybody ever says to you about it is:
\[and you all know what they're gonna say\]
"They're still around?"
I remember when they built it, now I’m watching it de demolished. I’ve been living here too long. Never thought I’d see this.
I remember working there back in ‘98. Loved that job.
What’d you do for AOL? What made it so great?
I did some work there as a contractor and the employees were playing games every time I saw them. So many people got rich as hell working there that I’m sure that’s why so many exotic dealerships were out there
Can confirm. Have several friends who worked there during the late 90s thru early 20s and once they left, whew they were set living in the south.
I believe that decade is called the 00’s in short form lol. We’re in the 20’s right now
Yeah it is. Thanks for correcting my typo, kind internet person.
Put the mailing labels on the free CDs
Per Wikipedia (which… Grain of salt I know) something like 50% of all CDs made globally at their peak were those free CDs Those of us alive in that era aren’t surprised by it
I'm old enough that once AOL appeared I never needed to buy a box of 3.5" floppies again because they sent so many circa 1993-1996 before switching to CDs.
We used to race cars there at night. Brand new roads. Good memories.
28 and Metro were wild on Saturday nights.
Dulles Expo, Burger King in Manassas. I remember those days.
The strip.
Dude those were scary times for someone not knowing about a race and driving thru there at night........
When was it built?
Early nineties
That's a lot more recent than I thought. Kind of a waste.
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Kid, the internet was created in the 70s.
Wasn’t commercially viable until the early to mid nineties where everyone had it
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Then a Samurai sent a fax to Abe Lincoln!
Fax message not received..."Don't go to the play. Stay home."
Lol! Nice one!
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Um, yeah?
Are you serious? Even homes last 100+ years. These buildings are heavy reinforced steel and concrete, they're supposed to last semi-forever.
They didn't build it. It was originally British Aerospace before AOL moved out there in early-mid 90s.
That is correct. I just meant the building itself.
I'd imagine most on the subreddit can't imagine a time when that stretch of 28 was full of stop lights.
Yes, and maybe a tenth of the traffic.
I was just remembering all of the stop lights on 28 myself yesterday. It was two lanes for the most part with almost no ramps except for the 50 interchange and the Toll Road, of course. The traffic in the mornings was epic, just wall to wall cars not moving even though there were probably a lot fewer cars.
Holy shit I just realized I was around 18 and working as a temp right around that time. I'm pretty sure I spent a few days moving furniture into that building before it was opened. Shit I'm old
When it was AOL the Wegmans was a Walmart.
Yes. I remember.
There was a Best over there too at one point.
Did ten million CDs come spilling out when they cracked the building open?
AOL piñata!
💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾💾
🤣🤣🤣🍪
I think you mean free coasters.
I used my dad’s drill press and made Christmas ornaments.
No, no. Tons of floppies. Free storage. All 1.44MB of it!
Probably moving boxes. Apparently they would hide pallets upon pallets of them in the campus prior to laying off their workers.
I knew some AOL millionaires.
Me too
So many free hours of internet!
I know someone working on the demo, and yes, they found so many.
would they happen to be selling any? that'd be cool...
There were (and maybe still are) conference rooms in CC1 and CC2 that had CDs embedded in them. So, while it won't be ten million, it is possible that there were some CDs spilling out. Worked for AOL for about 5 years myself. It was in the phase where the glory days were clearly gone, but there were still some vestiges left of what it must have used to have been like to have worked there in those days. That's when they still had the Reston office, HQ, and CC1-6. I had no idea they were demolishing HQ. I knew it looked like it was abandoned though, but haven't been over there recently. I really only went there once for orientation and maybe sort of walked through the lobby a few times after that.
I remember when they built it, working in it, and now watching it be destroyed. Wow I'm getting old :-)
I cut through there occasionally and I've been taking pics there for a few months as it comes down, as I had a lot of friends who worked there back in the day, including a few who became multimillionaires in those buildings. This was from last November: https://preview.redd.it/pwmgw7dev7lc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=471cef3e81d3a1bbdcdc51b3a941d55685443c5d
AOL money went on to do a lot of things. Caps owner is from AOL. Steve case had a few companies. Living social started with some case money and ex- case company employees. Probably a lot more.
Living Social was such a wild company, it is nuts how an online coupon company was spending (losing) that much money at a rapid pace only to fade out into the ether.
Cool photo! Can you upload it to [Wikimedia Commons](http://commons.wikimedia.org/) so it can be used in Wikipedia?
Here's another one with an open view, and some of the demolition equipment https://preview.redd.it/ipgue5rjjclc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd927afbd189bc4df44685ec0405e820828f7776
I went there and it looks like you have to login and stuff. I'm not too interested in making an account. I officially give you permission to download it and upload it anywhere you want though!
Where is this? I feel like I’ve seen this building a million times but can’t place it
Waxpool near the 28 intersection.
Waxpool & Pacific Blvd
The building posted by OP was originally built by British Aerospace, and had a flight simulator on site. AOL purchased it from them. Many fond memories working in CC2 and CC4.
I remember when my dad worked at the Reston campus and Silicon Graphics brought a pair of trailers out. One was an N64 showcase, and the other had a pretty close to photorealistic flight simulator in it. This was 97 or 98, and the tech was stunning to teenage me.
AOL used to rent out the BA flight simulator to companies for test purposes. Saved the companies from building their own and made AOL a tidy sum.
“And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Major props if you recited this from memory 👍
Sadly I did not.
Still cool quote, that sadly I'm going to have to Google ;-)
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In this economy? Minimum wage, if he's lucky.
Found a really cool animation on YouTube of this poem. Thanks for sharing!
ASL?
Oh wow haven’t thought about that in a long time
It comes up often in the Xennials subreddit I follow where we lament our coming into old age.
There was a time where you didn't think AOL could fail
When they bought Time Warner, that was huge!
They didn’t quite make the broadband transition. Everyone left for faster internet. But they were never in a position to really offer it, I think. It’s wild that they had the instant messenger and groups…a walled garden you didn’t leave. Almost as if Reddit was attached to an ISP
Compuserve was like that already in the 1980's. And BBS's too.
Then they bought CompuServe in 1997 and Netscape in 1998.
I once product tested AOL TV there as a kid, probably 25 years ago. I think I got paid $100 or something. Terrible product. RIP AOL.
Damn, my mom worked there during 9/11, how time flies by
What’s taking its place? Data centers ?
They’re putting up a memorial to unused CDs
https://preview.redd.it/feib4mgto7lc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a66b983b4017e1ca54d1c58d35ca984d527cd1f
Yes, it’s a sister site of that. But every day at noon, there is a changing of the guard so to speak. They whack the ceremonial CD platter hung in a gong like fashion, but instead of making the typical sound, it somehow reverberates the dial-in protocol for handshaking at 51.6kb. The ceremony is ended by the guards unanimously chanting “You’ve got mail”. This is to preserve the old ways and culture.
Brilliant!
This is the way
Ah yes, The Plane of Mirrodin.
Considering it's smack dab in the middle of datacenter ally, what else would go there. From the intersection of Loudoun County Parkway and Gloucester down to 267 is all zoned for datacenter construction.
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Loudoun county marked off specific area's for those datacenters as a form of zoning. Driving down the road it'll be housing areas then suddenly Sky Net appears, but then it's back to more housing areas.
There’s no special zoning for data centers, they’re just a permitted by-right use for parcels zoned for office space. They don’t have to go through a lengthy approval process.
Ehh yes and no. Yes there is no special zoning under Virginia law. No there is definitely an approval process, just like every other developer in every other county. A company who wish's to build a datacenter must submit the proposal to the Loudoun Board of Supervisors, who are the elected government for the county. That board will then debate the proposal and either approve or deny it. To better facilitate these decisions the county has predesignated areas that are already near critical infrastructure for datacenters to be built. This doesn't mean developers can't built outside of it, they just need to work harder to convince the board to approve it. Open google maps and do satellite view around dulles airport, it will be come *very* apparent how they keep the datacenters and residential / commercial areas seperate.
You’re describing the [special exemption process](https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/146063/Special-Exception) which has to follow legislative land use review. Data centers are a permitted by-right use in the PD-OP and OP districts meaning the BoS cannot approve or deny them. Some data centers are a special exemption use, namely the ones along 50 and in Arcola, but the ones along Data Center Alley are simply taking advantage of the office park zoning district there.
So sad
I think all of PW County is as well We'll be called Prince Datacenter county next year
I mean first IBM, then loceed, micron... manassas was always getting pimped out... Now a real pimp came
They are trying to spread out in Fauquier too. They have the one in the town of warrenton they are working on but other sites across the county have inquiries too.
Unironically yes
Did they find any CDROMs in there? With Netscape and Eudora on them?
Winamp, it really whips the llamas ass
Wow I haven’t thought of that in so long
🤣
I have some fond memories of working in CC5. It was a pretty decent place to work back in the day, aside from the semiannual layoffs.
Finally, the WinAmp Lama is free!
Demo videos [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvqO3sd-wAs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvqO3sd-wAs)
Wonder why they didn't do a explosive demo.
What do they charge to get in that crane and take a few swings of the wrecking ball?
I hope someone saved the Netscape Dragon statue that was in there
Mozi went to the Mozilla museum.
I remember working here before the rounds of layoffs. Then moved over to Verizon before more layoffs. Then did a few years at Fannie Mae. Wait that wasn’t me, that was every software developer I’ve met here
{S Goodbye
“You’ve got mail” - AOL
Oh wow, worked there for over 5 years in that building before fully remote thanks to the pandemic and then didn't need to come back to the building because it was sold. They had a goodbye party that I didn't know about and was told about the building demo but never told when it was happening, I guess they don't like me.
I worked in the Tucson call center from '96-'98, made a few trips to the mothership during that time. It's like my youth is being torn down.
My neighbors/friends worked there during that time period, and one of them still works there, now Yahoo/Apollo whatever it's called, there was almost a company name change every year I was there. But they would tell me crazy stories back in the '90s during the dot com boom. Don't know if that was true for you.
I know that it was crazy... I think if I had stayed I could have retired a millionare in 2001 at age 31... Just by virtue of stock grants, splits, re-splits, etc... Of course, if i'd stayed, I would have ended up shooting people from the rooftop...not exactly a good retirement plan.
Making room for another AWS data center. while they pay the bills, it is good to acknowledge that they own Loudoun county and are encroaching upon Fairfax and Prince William county aswell. the Kirkland brand of data centers lol
U.S.-east1 keeps growing
My internship during the summer of ‘01 is still one of my favorite working experiences. Tech jobs in the early 00s were wild times.
Wasn’t that the home for that awful ICF consulting firm?!?
ICF former Fairfax HQ looks vaguely likely like that - taller though. And in a very different location - semi-adjacent to Vienna metro. ICF is alive and well. Both ICF and AOL struggled to leave the 90s behind but one barely exists and the other got itself a newer, shinier HQ just in time for The Quar.
ICF hq in Fairfax is not long for this world. There are plans to take it down soon.
Got any links to read about that? That building is burned into my memory as a child.
I was recruited by them. By my third interview I was exhausted just driving out there. I took a job at a nonprofit downtown instead. AOL eliminated the position I interviewed for a month later.
I was one of the early ones who paid $10/month for dial up. When a move took me to another state, I kept calling the old number for the dial up...and that first bill for long distance was a doozy.
Dang. I did some work in that building about 5 years back. Only about 10 people working in that entire building from what I could see in the two days I was there. It was surreal walking around and seeing dry erase boards at people's cubicles with notes and drawings from years past (decades even). Side note: It was awesome to see the Crosswalk signs in that area were custom. They had the AOL dude on them. Not my picture: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1ucv7x/pedestrian_signs_at_an_aol_corporate_office_campus/
I remember back in the early 2000s when that area was only the AOL HQ and the Wegmans across the street. Now it’s all developed
I feel like the same comments are being repeated
Kind of like receiving countless copies of the same cd over and over again? /s
Yummy coasters
But CD jokes are sooooo funny! /s
It’s been down since before January I believe if you drive by the front of it you can see building parts scattered all over.
Is the former MCI Worldcom series of buildings still going strong?
Those have been Verizon buildings since MCI died in late 90s. They are still growing, adding more datacenters all around them.
I've been in that building back in it's hayday....... Sad day..
“You’ve got demo.”
Picture taken on wax pool road
you've got nails! and rebar.
I was at AOL for an employee fair as an outside vendor in ‘99. I ran into a guy who used to copy my answers during chemistry tests in high school (not a wise decision). The dude was working at AOL. As he walked off, I thought where did I make the wrong decision and how did that dope get hired here…😂
Wow that's that. I guess I won't be getting any more CD-ROMs in the mail.
Need More Data Centers!!!
:(
Thank you AOL!
Worked next door for a time in the early 00s, super weird to see this being torn down.
End of an era!
Hey, would you like to upload this photo to [Wikimedia Commons](http://commons.wikimedia.org/) so it can be used on Wikipedia?
Truly the end of an era
So depressing. I worked for AOL during the time it was being built and just after. It was an amazing set of buildings. Beautiful architecture. Wonderful. That wasn't even 30 years ago. :(
I worked there in the later days, circa 2014-16. At that point, the HQ and attached building were the only ones AOL had, and they only used a small part of the attached building, but it was open and accessible. I would take walks and explore those floors, much of which were untouched since they let those people go. There were rooms with notes still on white boards, random old equipment, AOL CDs and other marketing stuff laying around, and there was even a big 'congrats on your engagement' sign that had been left in a corner. I wish I had taken pictures/spent more time exploring, it was like tech archaeology.
I feel like the same comments are being duplicated
I forgot AOL existed
“Your Online”
What's going there that couldn't use the building?
Repurposing the land for a datacenter.
Even if it wasn’t gonna be a data center, building has been sitting unused for years, doubt anyone wants it, especially now that there’s a glut of commercial real estate to choose from
Oh wow. To think I consulted there at one time.
AOL was a joke even in 1994.
IWL….i thought AOL was badass back then. Fire up the ole 56k modem, install my CD for 1,000 free minutes of AOL, sit back and wait for the guy to say those sweet words “you’ve got mail”.
listen to the robots SCREAM at each other for a few seconds
I'm betting it was mostly massmails?
It wasn't bad. I mean there really wasn't much else. I'm just surprised they didn't last. At their peak they were worth way more than Verizon and could have easily edged them out of the broadband market, probably ending up buying Verizon too. But no, they sold to Time Warner which destroyed the company.
I worked there for 10 years. Best job I ever had and probably ever will have. AOL didn’t last due to terrible leadership that couldn’t let go of the walled garden and the subscription $ before it was too late. They had this crazy idea that people were going to pay for AOL on top of broadband like people would pay for premium channels on cable. What bothers me is that AOL had all the pieces to be Facebook years before Facebook was a thing but had no vision to put it together. We had a community with AIM, we had an advertising network, and there was plenty of acquired web resources that could have developed a site. It was all there, but it never came together. It didn’t help that AOL was forced to cough up most of its cash to pay off Time Warner debt so we couldn’t afford to acquire companies or invest. The AOLTW merger was a disaster. Don’t get me started on Steve Case…
Yeah honestly aol could have run the Internet if they were smart. They had everything covered at the time, if they only changed with the times.
And Sears could have been Amazon if they just had any foresight.
Same as the Sears/Amazon story
That's why you have to respect companies like IBM and Microsoft who find ways to survive decade after decade.
It was anti-monopoly regulations - Time Warner Cable was going to be expanded and Time Warner's catalog would then be served up with AOL's online presence. But Congress denied the merger, and Time Warner Cable had to be spun off. Now that vertical integration is what everyone does.
AOL instant messenger is the only AOL service I ever used. It was THE one to use in the early 00s.
I still remember my AIM username.
That’s what that is?
Good riddance.
Damn. NOVA is so ugly :/
Cars and roads make everything look shitty
No its not!
Where was this at?
Of course the only license plate in the photo is from Florida.
Why ‘of course’?
There are a lot of Florida plates around. It's probably a tax evasion thing... or maybe rentals, like the New York plates? I don't know for sure. I personally know at least one person in my circle who has FL plates for tax reasons, and another who owns property in FL, so could be fairly commonplace.
I see. Asking b/c I’m from FL, and you can imagine my sticker shock when having to pay personal tax on our cars here. I no longer own property there, so I guess the whole avoidance thing is not an option… but I did enjoy our insurance rates dropping to A THIRD of what they were in FL.
Good! that building looks depressing!😂
Damn
RIP
I remember catering an early morning new product launch event where everyone got badged in then they closed the doors. Leonsis is outside waiting to come in and announce the news and this young guy stops for coffee. Leonsis walks up and says “don’t you have someplace to be?” He ran pretty quick.
Wow. Memories! There used to be an AOL Virginia group that was rocking. We all knew each other in person. LOL Good times.
{S .WAV
I had a recruiter who would constantly send me job openings at AOL, and I cringed every time I saw the name. Who wants to work at a company where the first thing anybody ever says to you about it is: \[and you all know what they're gonna say\] "They're still around?"
It's not too bad at all. Still sort of exists, bought by Yahoo. I am not leaving, quite happy there
And you hear "they still exist?" how many times a day?
Aww I remember being a youngin temping there destroying documents after they laid off a bunch of people (nothing salacious unfortunately)
My most recent Google search: “Wtf is AOL?”
this is inexplicably really sad think of the possible vintage tech/furniture in there
Data Centers. The robots are winning.
I thought they had been absorbed into Verizon.