AOL has been blacklisted on StopBadware.org due to the main fact that it installs additional software with AOL 9.0 without telling the user. The test of the free AOL 9.0 that StopBadware.org tested, reportedly got the bad grade because AOL did not live up to their “rich legacy” as stated by StopBadware.org co-director John Palfrey. Palfrey says this was the only reason why AOL had got dumped into the same category as malicious badware providers.
AOL has said that they are reviewing the report, and that no company has done more to fight malware than AOL. AOL is taking steps to ensure that the issues are addressed, and that they involve only minor UI changes.
AOHell Europe is up for sale at the moment, first bids were hoped to be in the region of £1BN. That has since fallen to £600,000 and a further round of bidding this is expected to fall even further perhaps to £400,000. At this rate they will have to give it away. Most bidding processes increase as the get to the final stages so it is interesting to see a Dutch auction for AOHell Europe.
By all accounts it is the fact that their customers have to go through their portal or something to connect that is putting off interested parties.
I guess it looked that way to them and short of a major reworking so AOHellers weren’t living in a bubble with all the proprietary stuff. When you buy something like that you inherit the existing system until such time as you change it, which will also cost money.