I haven’t written about my disliking of AOL for a long time, mostly because, what’s the point, they’ve done a fine job writing themselves out of the equation. Seriously what have they done of note since like the release of AOL 5.0 – back when most people were still using dial-up?

AOL has one product under their brand that I still use, AOL Instant Messenger. Actually I don’t even use AIM, I connect to the AIM network via iChat. AOL better hope for their ever-coming link up with Google Talk users soon or I could be signing off forever.

Now today comes a preview of the “new” AOL.com portal. Check it out – look familiar?

They’re calling it AOL 3.0, which is funny because I believe their software (which people apparently still use) is on version 9 and even AIM is on version 6 point something. One would assume this 3.0 is supposed to conjure up thoughts of the upcoming Web 3.0 movement…instead it conjures up one thing: Yahoo.

TechCrunch has a good write-up showcasing just how much of a rip-off of Yahoo it is. It’s quite sad really.

I could go on, but there’s not point in continuing to kick a company while it’s down. Just queue some Ace of Base and remember a time when “Welcome!” and “You’ve Got Mail!” were the two most exciting phrases in your online existence.