Not like this AOL!
Today when I started up my instant messaging services (I use Trillian to access Yahoo, AIM, MSN, GoogleTalk, and ICQ) a message screen popped up.
AOL had added two Bots to my buddy-list, MovieFone and ShoppingBuddy. So I could IM them for great holiday flicks and gift ideas.
AOL, I use IM to connect to people I know, it is a personal medium. I am not at all interested in asking robots for shopping ideas through IM. Worse, you provide this 'service' by adding stuff to my contact list without asking me and tell me to right click and delete if I don't want it there. Opt-out is not the route to go AOL. You violated my personal sphere and so have diminished my trust in you as a company. It also seems like I'm not the only one having issues with this behaviour by AOL.
Well said. Intruding into a personal communication system like this is just plain rude. The idea that they can simply assume that their users want a "shoppingbuddy" in their contact list, is absurd! (I wonder who wants to use an IM client for shopping anyway.) But even if it was an interesting service: They cannot put it onto people's contact list without asking!
Posted by: Martin Roell at November 17, 2005 10:34 AMI have to say that I really disagree. I mean, true they didn't ask if we wanted these things added to our buddy lists, but really, is it that hard to just quick delete them. And actually, though the shopping one for me is about as useless as possible, the movie one has already come in quite handy. Thats all I wanted to add.
Posted by: Dan at November 17, 2005 8:34 PMDan, when you delete them, you get another message announcing that they have been removed from your buddy list. That is quite ridiculous.
Posted by: zoogies at November 18, 2005 11:46 PM"AOL... trust in you as a company" - I believe that is an oxymoron, especially when you consider that AOL is, more specifically, a corporation.
?Want a better Internet? America Online."
Posted by: nog_lorp at November 19, 2005 9:58 AM
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