I’m often asked if there are other online services to use besides AOL, but still have the same ease of use. To help summarize my response, I’ve put together a small list of alternative services which are free that are similar or better than the AOL equivalent.
| AOL Service | Alternative Services |
| Instant Messaging | Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, Pidgin, Trillian |
| Chat Rooms | Yahoo Chat, IRC, Pidgin |
| Mozilla Thunderbird, Gmail, Yahoo, Live (MSN) | |
| Web Browsing | Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Flock, Internet Explorer 7 |
| Message Boards | Topix, Yahoo Message Boards, Independent Forums* |
| Profiles | MySpace, Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Bebo, Friendster, Blogger |
| Custom Toolbar | Mozilla Firefox Toolbar, Aqua Dock, Windows Quick Launch |
| Video | YouTube, Joost, Metacafe, Yahoo Video |
| Anti-Virus | Avira, AVG, Avast!, ClamAV |
| Firewall | Comodo Firewall, Zone Alarm, Windows Firewall |
| Pictures | Flickr, Webshots, Photobucket, Slide |
| Address Book | Plaxo, Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook |
| Favorite Places | Del.icio.us, Mozilla Firefox |
| Proxy/Anonymity | Tor, Free Proxies** |
| Search | |
| Web Acceleration | Google Web Accelerator |
| Blogging/Journals | WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, Vox |
| Keywords | OpenDNS*** |
| Anti-Phishing | OpenDNS, Microsoft IE7, Mozilla Firefox |
| Finance | Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money |
| Bill Pay, Personal Finance Management | Mint, Pocketbook |
| RSS Feed Services | Google Reader, MyYahoo, Bloglines, NewsGator |
| Instant Messaging | Pidgin, Meebo, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger |
* Independent Forums — There are thousands of online discussion Web sites available that talk about what you want to talk about. Just do a Google search for “<subject> forums.” Example: “Boating Forums.”
** Free Proxies — There are thousands of free proxy addresses out there that conceal your online identity. Just Google for “Free Proxies” to get started.
*** Open DNS — OpenDNS allows you to configure specific shortcuts which function like AOL Keywords. For example, “yahoo” to make you go directly to “http://www.yahoo.com/.” See?
There are many more alternatives, including software alternatives. The purpose of this is to help liberate users so they can make educated choices as to their online experience. If you know of more alternatives that are worthy of being added to this list, please leave a comment.Feel free to share this page with your friends and family; as it will help all of you get the most out of your online experience!
