It's fashionable to bash AOL. Anyone who has progressed beyond the newbie stage is expected to move on to other providers. But lately so many people have had their internet experience crippled by spyware, viruses, popups, browser hijacks, and spam, that the "nanny" approach of AOL may be seen as useful again.
AOL offers it's subscribers anti-virus protection, it blocks a lot of spam, employs an effective popup blocker, and restricts spyware. All of this is basically transparent to the AOL user who just wants to use the web wih as little effort as possible. Without the user's knowledge or permission, AOL installs protective software and even disables potentially problematic tools such as the MSN Messenger. The result is a better expereince for the average user who would not be able to manage his PC for himself.
Other ISP's such as Earthlink and MSN are also following this approach.
Of course it's not for everybody. Advanced users are perfectly able to defensively configure their PC's for themselves. But for the average user, having an ISP as a nanny, is not a bad idea.
