AOL to Offer 5GB of Online Storage


Recommended Posts

AOL on Thursday announced it would begin offering all Web users 5GB of online storage through its Xdrive product, part of the company's new initiative to make its services available without cost. Separately, AOL said it plans to cut 5,000 jobs.

Through Xdrive, individuals can back up files like photos, documents, music, videos, and more. Uploaded content can be access through any PC or mobile device with a Web connection, AOL said. Users can even share files with others, as well as automatically upload e-mail attachments.

AOL will not charge users for the service, which is currently priced at $10 per month. The free Xdrive will be available to anyone with an AOL or AIM screen name starting next month.

A premium offering with 50GB of storage will be available to those needing more space for a fee that has yet to be announced.

"People are accumulating personal digital assets at a fast pace, especially in areas like digital photos and videos," said AOL Digital Services president John McKinley. "Yet our in-home research shows that few people are taking steps to protect their digital memories from accidental loss or destruction."

Xdrive will join a number of other AOL services that the company plans to make available to non-subscribers in September. The company plans to continue offering its subscription dial-up service, but will no longer aggressive market it to consumers.

The charges will affect AOL's workforce of about 19,000 employees. 5,000 layoffs are expected to take place within the next six months, with notifications expected in October. AOL is also looking to sell its Internet access businesses in France, Germany and the UK.

Source

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/483872-aol-to-offer-5gb-of-online-storage/
Share on other sites

AOL must be really desperate to keep users from leaving them.

Indeed they must be.

To be honest i would rather just use my 2 g-mail accounts or @live.com accounts and e-mail the data to my account, rather than deal with AOL services.

Free AOL and free 5GB storage, not bad. I don't use AOL, but my mom still does. Everyone might not like AOL, but it might be worth keeping an eye on them in the next year to see if they can clean up their image now that they are instituting a new business model.

AOL must be really desperate to keep users from leaving them. :rolleyes:

I'm sure they are, but seeing as this service will be open to everyone who signs up for a free AIM screen name, it's in no way an incentive for their customers to keep subscribing.

I'm sure they are, but seeing as this service will be open to everyone who signs up for a free AIM screen name, it's in no way an incentive for their customers to keep subscribing.

Doesn't matter to AOL as they are free anyway. The only reason to pay AOL any money is for maybe support if they offer it, for those that need it, or for dial up.

AOL must be really desperate to keep users from leaving them. :rolleyes:

They may be desperate to stop the bleed from their Dialup services yes, but their certainly in a terrific position to offer awesome free services to everyone now.

The fact that they just opened up almost all of their AOL services for free is awesome. 5gb on Xdrive? Free XM Radio? AOL Mail? Free AIM Number things so you get unlimited incoming calls? Yeah, AOL sucks alright. :p

I love what AOL is doing. They are starting to position themselves in a very good manner here with the average tech user. Sure there are plenty of people who are on the "AOL sucks" bandwagon, who infact have probably NEVER used any of their software. I mean the whole "oh noes 2 or 3 extra processes" crack is worthless these days. If you can't accept the fact that AOL is offering awesome stuff for free now, then I guess I'm sorry. Maybe it's just me and bangbang023 :D

But rants aside, offering 5 gb of free space...for free is terrific. Box.net offers 5 gb also, but you gotta pay for it (or get 10 or 15 people to sign up under you) along with the other big online storage places...you still gotta pay for it. Now AOL comes along and says .... here here's 5 gb, enjoy! I sure will. :)

They may be desperate to stop the bleed from their Dialup services yes, but their certainly in a terrific position to offer awesome free services to everyone now.

The fact that they just opened up almost all of their AOL services for free is awesome. 5gb on Xdrive? Free XM Radio? AOL Mail? Free AIM Number things so you get unlimited incoming calls? Yeah, AOL sucks alright. :p

I love what AOL is doing. They are starting to position themselves in a very good manner here with the average tech user. Sure there are plenty of people who are on the "AOL sucks" bandwagon, who infact have probably NEVER used any of their software. I mean the whole "oh noes 2 or 3 extra processes" crack is worthless these days. If you can't accept the fact that AOL is offering awesome stuff for free now, then I guess I'm sorry. Maybe it's just me and bangbang023 :D

But rants aside, offering 5 gb of free space...for free is terrific. Box.net offers 5 gb also, but you gotta pay for it (or get 10 or 15 people to sign up under you) along with the other big online storage places...you still gotta pay for it. Now AOL comes along and says .... here here's 5 gb, enjoy! I sure will. :)

Ok I understand your post. But this isn't what I understand?

I mean the whole "oh noes 2 or 3 extra processes" crack is worthless these days.

I need to be exact on this LOC. AOL 9.0 SE uses exactly ATLEAST 6-8 processes on my machine when installed. I run a very good setup. No spyware, NO startup entries, etc. With AOL 9.0 SE installed: my computer boots up INCREDIBLY slow. I don't even want to discuss my moms 3-4 year old laptop with this nonsense installed because you get the point. What I am saying is I am truly am glad AOL is making this move with making their services FREE...but I just don't see how this will help AOL in any way if their products are bloated and slow down the users system. :huh:

Ok I understand your post. But this isn't what I understand?

I need to be exact on this LOC. AOL 9.0 SE uses exactly ATLEAST 6-8 processes on my machine when installed. I run a very good setup. No spyware, NO startup entries, etc. With AOL 9.0 SE installed: my computer boots up INCREDIBLY slow. I don't even want to discuss my moms 3-4 year old laptop with this nonsense installed because you get the point. What I am saying is I am truly am glad AOL is making this move with making their services FREE...but I just don't see how this will help AOL in any way if their products are bloated and slow down the users system. :huh:

I don't think (I have been known to be wrong on occasion) that AOL will be offering up access to their software for free. I believe for this they will still charge. I think most of their Free Aps can be used with no download at all (IE: Webmail, AIM, etc.).

I don't think (I have been known to be wrong on occasion) that AOL will be offering up access to their software for free. I believe for this they will still charge. I think most of their Free Aps can be used with no download at all (IE: Webmail, AIM, etc.).

No, all their software is free. I switched my dad and aunt over today. It was amazingly easy, took around five minutes. Basically you get everything you did before, except no tech support. (getting conflicting reports on whether you still get the higher bitrate with XM radio or not)

No, all their software is free. I switched my dad and aunt over today. It was amazingly easy, took around five minutes. Basically you get everything you did before, except no tech support. (getting conflicting reports on whether you still get the higher bitrate with XM radio or not)

Huh? I thought the change won't be happening till early September?

Huh? I thought the change won't be happening till early September?

Orgininally that was the plan...w/o revealing too much, less the AOL censors shock me, we decided to bump up the start date to yesterday, what's the point of making people wait. You can sign up for a free account, and migrate your account as well. I will get into details tonight on my blog.

Ok I understand your post. But this isn't what I understand?

I need to be exact on this LOC. AOL 9.0 SE uses exactly ATLEAST 6-8 processes on my machine when installed. I run a very good setup. No spyware, NO startup entries, etc. With AOL 9.0 SE installed: my computer boots up INCREDIBLY slow. I don't even want to discuss my moms 3-4 year old laptop with this nonsense installed because you get the point. What I am saying is I am truly am glad AOL is making this move with making their services FREE...but I just don't see how this will help AOL in any way if their products are bloated and slow down the users system. :huh:

Well on my system right now with AOL 9.0 installed it's running with 4 extra processes running. Granted I disabled a couple of them before, but I don't see any slow down whatsoever in general from running their software. Sure on occasion it's annoying to see the extra processes :p but it really doesn't bother me that much. If it bothers you or anyone else that much, just disable or end the task and that's it.

My point really was, give AOL's software a chance, try out their new stuff such as the Streamliner I mentioned before (still, very impressive stuff btw) and I'm pretty sure most people here would like it. Add the fact that it's totally free now and yeah. People love free here don't they :)

:laugh: and what's 2006?

Dunno lol. But back in the day all those online storage websites surfaced. All of it was used for warez purposes, so it didnt suceed. Not to mention:

1. People outgoing bandwidth it's still very slow compared to incoming bandwidth.

2. Storage isnt much of a problem lately. There's dvd's, pendrives, portable hard disks...

3. There's Gmail :p

I loved Xdrive, it's nice AOL bought them since it will never be free otherwise

In the end this is a great comment. Regardless how you feel toward AOL or AO-Hell as I see it referred to here sometimes, we bought a great company in X-Drive and are making it available free to ALL internet users. There are other examples of this across the Web 2.0 space, think about flickr or SketchUp.

In the end this is a great comment. Regardless how you feel toward AOL or AO-Hell as I see it referred to here sometimes, we bought a great company in X-Drive and are making it available free to ALL internet users. There are other examples of this across the Web 2.0 space, think about flickr or SketchUp.

Well I like Xdrive, I am a subscriber of both Xdrive and AOL (since I get AOL for $7 and Xdrive is half price with AOL account), but I do not like AOL especially its support, the most recent annoyance for me is AIM Digits, I signed up for a Digits but all of a sudden it got canceled 2 hours later, I tried to sign up again but the system won't let me anymore saying some unknown error, support offered no help and told me to just use another ScreenName "i.e. we don't really care", that's terrible.

Well I like Xdrive, I am a subscriber of both Xdrive and AOL (since I get AOL for $7 and Xdrive is half price with AOL account), but I do not like AOL especially its support, the most recent annoyance for me is AIM Digits, I signed up for a Digits but all of a sudden it got canceled 2 hours later, I tried to sign up again but the system won't let me anymore saying some unknown error, support offered no help and told me to just use another ScreenName "i.e. we don't really care", that's terrible.

Well then, no worries with the new AOL :p There's no support for the free services :D (at least not free support, maybe they will offer paid support, but I didn't read it)

Dunno lol. But back in the day all those online storage websites surfaced. All of it was used for warez purposes, so it didnt suceed.
Yes, warez aren't stored on online storage websites anymore... :rolleyes: They send them first class to your doorstep.
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Who wants to pay higher prices for the same 6+ year hardware in a new shell? This is hardware where things change fast and improve continuously. They could update w/ quicker/more efficient compute, faster storage, new controllers with new features (not a shell/design update), which are all realistic possibilities. They've done mid-generation console updates, but all we've had for Series X/S are not just different configuration updates (storage / digital versions / console aesthetics). Instead they've prioritized acquisitions, increasing prices, and have lost quite bit of their fan base because of lack of vision.
    • LibreOffice developer takes a dig at Euro-Office in new open letter by Usama Jawad LibreOffice maintainer The Document Foundation (TDF) has often criticized Microsoft for popularizing the OOXML standard for documents instead of the truly open-source OpenDocument Format (ODF). It has also bashed the Redmond tech giant for putting its own commercial interests over everything else. Now, it has switched targets a bit to aim its sights at the Euro-Office suite launching tomorrow. For those unaware, Euro-Office is a direct fork of OnlyOffice. It is being marketed as an open-source "European sovereign alternative" to proprietary services like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. It is being developed by a coalition of European companies including Nextcloud, IONOS, and Tuta. However, TDF has disagreed with this marketing classification in an open letter, saying that it is not the first open-source office suite being developed in Europe, as that honor belongs to OpenOffice.org, back in 2001. In a snide remark, it has emphasized that it feels "compelled" to clarify this because open-source initiatives should highlight transparency, not deception. It has stated that OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice are the only two "genuine" office suites with codebases in Europe, indicating that Euro-Office is a freeware clone of Microsoft Office that has rebranded itself to masquerade as a symbol of digital sovereignty. TDF has also remarked on the fact that those that are championing digital sovereignty now were very dismissive of LibreOffice and ODF a couple of decades ago: The LibreOffice has once again called out Microsoft for its "horrible" OOXML standard which locks in customers. Euro-Office also leverages this OOXML format, which effectively makes it an ally of Microsoft, according to LibreOffice. That said, it is unlikely if TDF's strong words will have any impact on the adoption or marketing of Euro-Office.
    • Apple finally brings the slider for Liquid Glass and many other changes by Aditya Tiwari Apple kicked off the official live stream of the WWDC 2026 annual developer event. The company began its latest wave of announcements with changes to the controversial Liquid Glass design language, which debuted last year across Apple's entire software ecosystem. A lot of people didn't like Liquid Glass when it first arrived on iPhone and other devices last year. The devices were plagued with transparency issues and whatnot. While Apple improved things over the year, it has now added a new Liquid Glass slider that lets you switch the transparency from clear to opaque. In other words, you can choose the amount of Liquid Glass you want to see on your iPhone instead of an on/off switch, which would only give you two choices. The sidebars now expand to the edge of the window. When you scroll the UI sideways, the refraction continues beneath the sidebar rather than being cut off at the boundary. Moreover, sidebar icons keep their color. Apple has changed the way Liquid Glass is rendered across the system. There is a separation between different layers, which makes buttons in the toolbar stand out from the background. Apple said it "deeply appreciates" the feedback it received from users and has made adjustments to Liquid Glass. New customizations allow Liquid Glass to improve contrast and enable a more vibrant appearance. The new icons have sharper edges, which addresses an old complaint that iOS 26 icons look blurry at smaller sizes. The upgraded Liquid Glass, Apple said, is building on last year's design upgrades by "integrating additional layers of Liquid Glass directly into the artwork itself." Apple's upgraded design language is available on iOS 27, which is arriving this year with no changes to the list of supported iPhones.
    • FWIW, I've been using Helium on Linux and Windows since the first time it was mentioned here. Actually, maybe a day or 3 before, as I searched for it when I saw it mentioned on the MX Linux forums. Haven't had a single issue on either OS. Not bad for a beta.
    • See up until a few years ago y'all could get away with simply denying your war crimes, pretending it never happened. Unfortunately for you, it's the 2020s and Israel's genocide has been livestreamed in real time. You have to be dumber than a rock to think anyone still believes your propaganda. See the cat is already out of the bag. The world already knows who you are so do yourself a favor and just drop the facade. Bet it gets real tiring keep track of all the lies. Take some inspiration from Israeli ministers who boast on live TV they like massacring civilians. Every zionist accusation is after all a confession.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Very Popular
      Captain_Eric earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • One Month Later
      amusc earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      510
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      238
    3. 3
      ATLien_0
      80
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      78
    5. 5
      +Edouard
      75
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!