AOL Browser 1.0 for
Windows
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Download it!Facing serious pressure from the rising popularity of the Web and the imminent arrival of the Microsoft Network (not a problem, it turned out), America Online introduced its own Web browser in July 1995. Frankly, it sucked. While Netscape was using tab les, background images, and font tags, the AOL browser was stuck in Stone Age HTML, failing to support even simple features like aligned images. After numerous attempted improvements and additions, including tables and client-side image maps, AOL finally abandoned the whole idea, announcing that the company would ship a version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer as its 3.0 browser. PC users upgra ded to 3.0 in July 1996, and Mac users should get their chance by summer's end. Although the online service's previous (current, for the Mac) browser (v. 1.1) made improvements over its predecessors, members still complained about unexplained happenings like evaporating graphics, excruciatingly sluggish (and conveniently expensive ) downloads, and the fact that AOL's homepage still looked better on any other commercial browser. These problems - combined with the general trash talk lofted at the company - were more than enough motivation to scrap the home-brewed browser altog ether. Since the AOL 3.0 browser uses Microsoft's technology, it adds a range of features that were noticeably absent in previous AOL browsers, from aligned images to frames. The new AOL browser (basically Internet Explorer with an AOL sticker) certainly rend ers the Web a more visually pleasing place to visit.
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