s a year via phones, email, and chat rooms. To ensure customer satisfaction, AOL collects over 200,000 surveys a month over the Internet (Fact book). Second, AOL's mission is to use the finest technology to offer quality services that are simple and easy to use. AOL refers to it as "making technology invisible" (Fact book). While complex and highly efficient, their services are easy to understand and use. Also, with the increase in demand for their services, AOL has had to upgrade its technology to handle its many users. Currently, AOL's technology can handle 1.2 million simultaneous users (Fact book). As their membership constantly increases, they will have a greater burden to improve the efficiency and speed of their equipment.
             Advertising on the web is a new expenditure that has caused a frenzy of polls and studies trying to discover consumer patterns and the most effective marketing strategies. Only time will tell the true impact of online marketing and how it is best utilized.
             In its online Fact book, AOL dubbed itself "The Most Powerful Marketing Partner in Cyberspace"(Fact book). This bold claim is hardly far from the truth in light of recent studies. Out of the many impressing facts in these studies, two include: "AOL is the most recognized name on the internet- with name recognition five times greater than its nearest competitor; AOL's membership of 18 million is twice as large as the combined subscriber total of People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The New York Times. (Fact book)" It should be no surprise that AOL's advertising and marketing agreements reached $1 billion this year!
             America Online recently joined General Mills in a multi-year marketing plan. Together, they will use a series of online and offline resources to accommodate the marketing goals of both companies. Members of America Online and CompuServe as well as visitors to AOL owned sites will be offered promotional programs based on ...