Hackaday on the rise and fall of dial-up

For Hackaday, Al Williams looked at dial-up internet from its popularity in the early 90s and the rise of ISPs like AOL until the advent of broadband:

Some free providers showed ads in a window or otherwise inserted them into your browsing experience. They could gather demographic data on where and how you were browsing, and that was also a viable product. If nothing else, if you were at a car website, the service could show you ads for cars, for example, and either charge the advertiser more or, at least, expect a better result.

There were other earlier schemes like Bigger.net, which promised lifetime access for $59. What could go wrong? There were limited tests of ad-supported access, and even a company that wanted to give you network access bundled with long-distance service. That lasted a month.

It’s remarkable that AOL’s dial-up service lasted all the way til 2025. May that whirring song live on in our memories.