[ale] AOL "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"

[Jeff Hubbs]

Well, these is that thing about IE returning a MSN search page instead
of a 404 page when a 404 is returned.  

Wasn't there a to-do from the tinfoil-hat crowd some time back about
some "feature" if IE's that "edited" content to redirect you to
MS-sponsored or -affiliated sites?


On Fri, 2004-09-03 at 13:29, Robert Karaffa wrote:
> hi folks,
> 	a few evenings ago my pop and i were testing my VoIP (Vonage) 
> connection.  he's in Fla., i'm here in decatur.  very good connection, 
> inexpensive for all the features offered compared to BellSouth.  i'm 
> very happy with it so far.  hooked the VoIP hardware behind my Linux 
> firewall (Comcast broadband), gave it an IP address and away we go.
> 	the interesting part of all this is that i gave my dad the web address 
> of Vonage (Vonage.com), to which he went.  he started reading aloud the 
> content of the webpage, which was radically different than the vonage 
> page i was reading at the same time.  after some scratching-of-skulls, 
> we discovered that he was using the blasted AOL browser rather than, 
> say, Mozilla, or <insert browser of choice>.  what made me see red was 
> that he typed "vonage.com" and the AOL browser took him to an ad for 
> Vonage (something about "back-to-school savings and etc.".  i've been 
> trying to convince him to drop AOL like used dental floss, and until 
> that evening he was resistant.  now that his eyes have been opened, 
> he's starting to ask pointed questions about how AOL operates.  he 
> finally realized that the AOL browser was "filtering" the content for 
> him, and only allowing him to see what it wants him to see (unless, of 
> course, he figures out how to get around that and still use their 
> browser...not likely).
> 	anybody else up against this kind of crap?  not looking for legal 
> advice, mind you.  just thoughts and ideas how to deal with this.
> 
> -Bob K.
>