Here’s a quickie…

For the past nine years or so, I have built a collection of various online service signup CDs. It’s not a huge collection, but it’s amusing to take a stroll down memory lane. I will share with all of you a few of my favorite online service signup CDs (AOL is by far the most common).

This article is dedicated to the memory of all those CDs that gave their life in the valiant struggle to bring the computer users of the world free hours of AOL service. May all those fallen CD souls rest in peace.

Anyway, on with this freak show!

A rare specimen

I would like to start by sharing this beautiful rare specimen: a CompuServe 4.0 signup CD, complete with the amazingly clever tagline, “For those serious about internet online.” As opposed to...what? Usenet online?

Fresh lemon scent!

This is one of many AOL 3.0 CDs circa 1998 I have laying around. I like this one because it evokes the visual style of a box of laundry detergent. “Faster web browsing action! Cleans deep stains without fading colors!”

The Gold Collection

What do you do when you want to make some of your customers feel special? Why, you give them a gold version of your product! If you’re Visa, it’s the Gold Card. If you’re AOL, it’s the Gold signup CD. I have a few of these from the AOL 3.0/4.0 era.

AOL CD or sour apple candy?

I don’t know why AOL decided to go with a green apple motif for AOL 9.0 Optimized (2003). What I really want to know, however, is why AOL decided to give potential customers 1099 free hours. Why not give them one more hour and go for a nice round number?

Oh, and for what its worth, those are 1099 free hours for 50 days (after the 50 days are up, you lose the free hours). There are 1200 hours in a 50-day time period. You would have to be online for nearly 22 hours each day to use all those free hours.

An exclusive club

This lovely blue specimen (1999) features an “exclusive free trial” of AOL 5.0. Congratulations, you are part of a club whose membership includes half of the adult population of the United States (or so it seems, considering just how many of the CDs were in circulation in the late 90s).

So there you have it, a little bit of AOL history. But that’s not all. I’ve set up an album of the entire collection. Enjoy!