Free Alternatives to AOL

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
E-Mail	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	Google
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!