AOL Drops Usenet Access

[DigitalX]

America Online will stop providing its members with access to Usenet newsgroups, effective in February. The groups were one of the earliest forms of user discussion on the Internet but largely have been replaced by blogs and instant messaging, AOL says.

 

In February, America Online will discontinue providing member access to Usenet newsgroups, one of the earliest forums on the Internet.

 

AOL Latest News about AOL Time Warner subscribers who access the forums by using the keyword "newsgroups" are greeted with a message informing them that the service will be "discontinued in early 2005." Members are advised to visit Google Groups if they wish to continue accessing Usenet.

 

"We've just been finding over the years that more members are turning to other forums, like message boards and blogs," AOL spokesperson Jay Esmele told NewsFactor.

 

"The number of AOL members actually using the Usenet groups is very minimal, and it's decreasing," she added.

 

End of an Era

 

So far, there has been no outcry from any members, Esmele said, and very few complaints are expected.

 

Although blogs Latest News about Blogs and instant messaging Latest News about instant messaging largely have supplanted early forum arenas like the IRC and Usenet, some opinion columns have posited that AOL's newsgroup shutdown marks a milestone in Internet history, because it highlights how new communication forms are sweeping away the old, text-based Usenet style.

 

AOL first provided access to the groups 11 years ago. Although they were popular with AOL members for years, Esmele noted that recent usage has shrunk to fewer than 1,000 members per month.

 

New Focus

 

The discontinuation of Usenet will allow AOL to put greater focus on other community features, Esmele said.

 

In particular, the company plans to increase visibility of its blog creation tool, also called "online journals." Currently, there are over half a million online journals at AOL.

 

The company also will put greater emphasis on chat rooms and message boards. There are over 10,000 message boards at AOL now, and the company is working to develop more features and additional boards.

 

Not the End

 

Although AOL members will have to go elsewhere for Usenet access, the discontinuation is not expected to be the end of Usenet.

 

Thousands of Usenet groups exist, covering a range of topics from TV shows to politics to bizarre diatribes about hating cartoonish dinosaur Barney.

 

"It was one of the first ways to communicate and connect online," said Esmele. "I don't expect that it will completely die out as long as it has dedicated fans."