[Infowarrior] - AOL subscribers up in arms over e-mail ads

[Richard Forno]

AOL subscribers up in arms over e-mail ads
Throngs of users threaten to say goodbye forever to AOL because of its
decision to display ads with e-mail messages sent to paid subscribers

http://ww6.infoworld.com/products/print_friendly.jsp?link=/article/06/06/07/
79048_HNaoluproar_1.html

By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

June 07, 2006

Millions have canceled their AOL LLC subscriptions in recent years, but
Barbara Borchers has remained a loyal paying member of the Internet service
provider since 1997.

Even after signing up with a broadband provider, the Kentucky retiree
decided to pay AOL $14.95 per month, mostly to keep the e-mail address she
has had for almost 10 years, and also because of her high opinion of AOL's
technical support staff.

But Borchers is very close to joining the throngs of users saying goodbye
forever to AOL. The reason? AOL's recent decision to display to its paying
subscribers ads along with e-mail messages for the first time. "I don't want
to switch to another e-mail provider, but I will if they don't fix this so
that these ads aren't there anymore," Borchers said.

She is not alone. In blogs, discussion forums and interviews, a number of
AOL subscribers are loudly objecting to these ads, calling them intrusive,
unsolicited, distracting and annoying. "These are animated ads. They blink
on and off and carry on when you're trying to read a message. They're right
there in your face," said Borchers, who began getting them last week.

The banner ads appear below the e-mail message read form, just like they
have appeared for years below the AOL Mail inbox. However, for users like
Borchers, having them displayed along with e-mail messages crosses the line.
These users don't begrudge ads elsewhere on AOL, but they feel that paying
members should be allowed to read e-mail messages in an ad-free territory.

Rebecca Monteiro, an AOL subscriber since 1997, also plans to cancel her
membership. "These ads are almost the equivalent of having commercial music
ads in the background of every telephone conversation," Monteiro, who lives
in Louisiana and started seeing the ads on Monday, said in an e-mail
interview. "The worst part is that these ads are located on our private
e-mails ... the last place I'd expect or want to see an ad."

B.J. Brooks, an AOL subscriber for over 10 years, also has definitive plans
to cancel his account. He has a broadband connection and kept the AOL
account to hang on to his e-mail address. "As a member I should be given the
option to block [these] ads, should I desire," he said in an e-mail
interview.

Like Brooks, Linda Shinsky has been an AOL member for over 10 years and
keeps her membership active mainly for the e-mail address, since she also
has a broadband connection with another provider. Now she is planning to
cancel as well. "Why pay for a service when there is no benefit?" Shinsky, a
California resident, said in an e-mail interview.

The ads are being shown to AOL subscribers using version 9.0 of the
company's proprietary access software. AOL surveyed subscribers and found
that displaying banner ads along with AOL Mail messages generally wouldn't
bother them, an AOL spokeswoman said Tuesday. The ads aren't being targeted
to users based on the content of e-mail messages, she said.