From “TRY AOL”
to “Sign in”.

The December 20, 1996 capture is a page shown inside a frame. A red column on the left holds the menu, from What's New and Rants & Slants down to Site Map. A purple box says the future: BUDDY LIST now available on AOL 3.0. The first item under AOL Announces is dated December 2, 1996: America Online Launches New Unlimited Use Pricing.

WIRED had reported the plan in November: unlimited use for $19.95 a month from December 1. Members paying $9.95 a month for their first five hours would be moved to the flat fee unless they spoke up, which WIRED said would effectively double many bills. Regulators questioned the switch.^[2]

The file archived at www.aol.com holds only the frame and a fallback for browsers that couldn't display frames. That fallback is a sales pitch, and it is the oldest text of aol.com we could read.

By June 25, 1997 the page is blue and has a triangle logo. It describes itself as Our home page on the Web. "You Are Here." The top line says Try the beta release of AOL Instant Messenger™ Service NOW!, and AOL NetFind asks Why search when you can find! The company blurb is short on modesty: the world's first billion-dollar interactive services company.

On May 8, 1998 the logo is a plain AOL.COM and the page is a directory. Sixteen Web Channels run from Travel to Kids Only, each with two to four examples; Lifestyles lists Seniors, Women, Gay. A box on the left says TRY AOL, 50 Free Hours, Download NOW!. One image on the page has the alt text Download Microsoft Internet Explorer.

A note at the bottom offers Special versions of AOL for residents of Canada, Germany, France, the UK, Sweden, Japan, and Australia.

A year later the page is busier. The May 7, 1999 capture, headed Thursday, May 6, 1999, has 146 link tags in its HTML where 1998 had 88. The AOL NetFind column says Find long-lost pals with AOL White Pages for all 50 states. Under Shortcuts you can try the Calorie Calculator - New!, and a Star Wars entry offers news, a quiz, chat and Episode I Toys. The trial doubled: Try AOL Now and get 100 Hours FREE!

The June 13, 2000 capture is dated Monday, June 12, 2000 on the page, and an orange Shop panel sits below the blue sign-in and search panels. The sign-in box asks: Check Your AOL Mail, Enter AOL Screen Name, Enter Password. The Shop panel lists stores from HickoryFarms.com to drugstore.com, plus a credit card offer: It's good to be odd with 2.9% APR through November. Under Hot Chats the topics are Romance, Britney Spears, Celebrities and Music.

Near the bottom is a line for a different kind of visitor: AOL Shareholders: Read Special Shareholder Material on the Proposed AOL/Time Warner Merger & Cast Your Vote Online. Your Vote Really Counts! AOL and Time Warner had announced the deal on January 10, 2000, and WIRED put the combined company's market value at about $350 billion.^[3] The merger closed on January 11, 2001.^[4]

From 2001 the browser title reads Welcome to AOL Anywhere, and the members' sign-in comes first. The June 16, 2001 capture asks for a password, then offers Mail, My Calendar, Portfolio and My AOL. A panel lists the other places AOL ran: Cell Phone, AOLTV, PDA/Handheld, AOL by Phone and Mobile Communicator. The footer now says Visit the AOL Time Warner Corporate Site.

Our 2002 and 2003 captures keep the members' sign-in above Search, Shop and People & Chat, while other panels change, and the top line sells each new version with a trial. Try the New AOL 6.0 for 1000 Hours FREE! in 2001 becomes Sign up for AOL 7.0 -- 1000 Hours FREE! in June 2002, the same 1000 hours. In February 2003 it is Sign up for the All-New AOL 8.0 - 1045 hrs FREE!

The 2002 page also sells a faster line, AOL Offers High Speed DSL, Download up to 50 times faster. At the end of 2002 AOL counted about 26.5 million members in the US.^[4] The 2003 small print has news for Mac users: New! The Next Generation of AOL for Macintosh now Runs on Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)! Get it Now! In 1996 the Mac version had been a Preview.

That table is only what the homepage said. AOL had a second door, and it was made of plastic.

You didn't have to visit aol.com to meet the free trial. It could turn up at breakfast.

In June 2004 the portal is gone. The browser title reads AOL Dial-Up Internet Service Provider with TopSpeed, Add AOL for Broadband to ANY High Speed Internet Connection, and the HTML has 25 link tags, fewer than in 1997. Three boxes sell features: Child-Friendly Surfing with AOL® Guardian, AOL for Broadband, and Fast, Not Frustrating. Two images carry the alt text Upgrade your Flash Player to see animation!

The June 2005 page is navy. Its main box sells AOL High-Speed, AOL service + high-speed connection, all for only $29.95, with a pink sign up now button. A column on the right asks Already Have High-Speed? and offers to Check Your Computer: See if you have AOL installed. The service list starts with 100 Greatest Americans.

The numbers behind the sales push were falling. AOL had more than 22.2 million US members at the end of 2004 and 19.5 million a year later.^[4][5]

The June 2006 capture is a news page. It is dated June 15, 2006, greets the reader with Good Evening and leads with a photo of George W. Bush: Is He Making A Comeback?, Bush Enjoys Best Week in Ages. The next story is Bombshell at Microsoft, Visionary Founder Plans to Leave. Below the search box are two links, Make This My Home Page and Get Free AIM E-mail.

Free email was on the homepage before the big announcement: a January 1, 2006 capture (Wayback ↗), not shown here, wishes everyone Dec. 31, 2005 Happy New Year and links to sign up for free email.

On August 2, 2006 AOL announced the bigger step: most of its services, the AOL software and AOL e-mail included, would be free, and advertising would pay. The catch is in Time Warner's annual report. The free services worked as long as an individual has a means to connect to the Internet, so users still needed their own means of connecting; AOL was not offering free dial-up access. AOL kept selling dial-up, with main plans at $25.90 and $9.95 a month, and ended 2006 with 13.2 million US access subscribers.^[5]

On June 16, 2007 the link reads Get Free AOL Mail and the greeting is Good Morning. The HTML also carries links for screen readers, from jump to communications center to jump to sports. A year later the HTML explains how to make AOL the browser's home page.

The June 15, 2009 capture has 326 link tags in its HTML, more than any earlier capture shown here. Its My Stuff panel shows AOL Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and AOL Radio, and its HTML also offers Hotmail and eBay. Another feature promises to keep you in touch through AIM, Bebo, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. TechCrunch had described the design in April: AOL's page now let you read Yahoo and Gmail mail too (reported).^[6] Its footer HTML starts with a way back: Back to Classic.

In November 2009, before AOL left Time Warner, the company showed a new identity. The name became Aol. with a full stop, set over pictures that kept changing. The press release called it one consistent logo with countless ways to reveal, designed by Wolff Olins with art from Universal Everything, GHAVA, Dylan Griffin and others. The release scheduled the full unveiling for December 10 and said AOL stock would begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange that day.^[7]

The June 15, 2010 capture shows the new wordmark at the top left, over a splash of artwork, with a top-news block below. The bar at the very top says Change Your Background – We've Added to Our Collection!

That spring there was more than one aol.com. TechCrunch reported that AOL was running three versions of its homepage: a picture-led test that began on May 3, the current page, and a classic look you reached through a link at the bottom.^[8] In this capture that link is still there: the footer, in the full-page image, says Back to Classic. The HTML also still carries the 2008 steps for dragging the AOL icon onto the "House" icon.

By June 2011 the lead stories are photographs. The Aol. logo sits on colored squares, big photo headlines fill the center, and a Latest Headlines list runs below. The browser title is a list of sections: AOL.com - News, Sports, Weather, Entertainment, Local & Lifestyle.

The top line welcomes new visitors: New here? Sign up for free. In the corner, a yellow running man labeled aim sits between icons for mail and radio.

The June 2012 capture includes a Homepage for Heroes section that asks you to Connect troops with their loved ones with just one minute of your time. A Cause of the Day appears above it, and the HTML keeps score.

The 2009 artwork idea is still alive, too. Under Father's Day Canvases, AOL Artists Marco Cibola and Christine Berrie have created Bicycle and Catch, two canvases to add to your page for Father's Day.

The June 2013 capture shows a lead-story slider, a Now Trending column and a Cause of the Day section. A carousel of AOL Original Shows sits on the right, and the HTML also names MAKERS. Like 2011 and 2012, its footer HTML still offers Make AOL.com My Homepage.

On April 15, 2014 TechCrunch reported that AOL had added a carousel of videos under its top news, and the head of AOL.com told TechCrunch the page drew 10 million unique visitors a day (reported).^[9] The June 2014 capture has the carousel under the lead story and a red flower behind the logo. Its HTML has 348 link tags, the most of any capture we read in full (1996–2014), and 101 pieces of alt text. A box lower down now says Make a Difference.

The June 15, 2015 capture drops the artwork. The logo is a black Aol. on white, the menu is one line of capitals from NEWS to VIDEOS, and a blue strip across the top says Be the first to experience the new AOL.com, LET'S GO. Eight days later, on June 23, 2015, Verizon completed its purchase of AOL.^[10] Lower down sit Make a Difference and AOL Original Shows; the lead-story area is blank in this capture.

A year later the menu moves into a column on the left. Its top is a dark panel with the white Aol. logo, the date, WED, JUN 15, and a box to Set your Location. Below it, icons label MAIL, SEARCH, NEWS and the rest.

The lead slide reads Donald Trump has a surprising offer for Kim Jong Un, and a box on the right is headed ORLANDO MASSACRE. The horoscope asks you to Choose your sign.

Our six captures from June 2017 to June 2022 share one layout, so here they are side by side. A white column on the left lists Mail, News, Entertainment, Finance and the rest above a blue button, MAKE AOL MY HOMEPAGE. The lead story is a slider with a counter: 4/60 in 2017, 4/72 in 2018, 4/81 in 2019, 4/74 in 2020, 7/53 in 2021 and 6/57 in 2022.

Our 2018 to 2021 captures are from October. The first three open with a dark bar: Stay in the loop! Get breaking news and big stories on your desktop. NOTIFY ME. The big black boxes are video player panels with nothing playing in the capture.

The right column tracks the news. DONALD TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY appears in our June 2017, October 2018 and October 2019 captures, and in October 2020 a box carries the Yahoo logo and 2020 Election Center. By our October 2021 capture the column is Latest Politics News, and by June 2022 it opens with War in Ukraine.

Our June 2023 capture keeps the left column but replaces the pink Search button with a magnifying-glass icon. Two items appear: 24/7 help next to the login, and Subscriptions in the menu, along with Online Classes. The weather box is set to San Francisco. Our June 2024 capture includes Elections 2024 in the menu and shows Popular Video and Latest News under the lead story.

Our June 2025 capture replaces the Aol. wordmark with a capital AOL in black on a yellow box, on a yellow bar. The Sign in button carries a small waving figure, drawn like the yellow AIM running man in the 2011 capture.

AOL's own history says the company joined Bending Spoons in 2026.^[1] The June 16, 2026 capture keeps the yellow bar and adds a Menu button. Its lead story comes from USA Today: Air Force B-52 bomber crashes after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base; 8 believed dead.

In 1996 the page promised The future. Now available on aol, and the way in was a download and a phone number. In our June 2026 capture the header offers Mail and a button that says Sign in.