The elders of search love to talk about the early days of online information retrieval. Pre-PC, the machine of choice was the TI-745, also known as the Texas Instruments Silent 700. No memory, acoustic coupler modem, 300 baud, no screen, continuous print on thermal paper-hard to believe. No one imagined that high-speed global connectivity with literally millions of searches being performed daily would become the norm, or that search would become an everyday word. How did we get here from there? Without question, the advent of consumer online services-Prodigy, The Source, CompuServe-moved the online world forward. However, while these names have faded into the distant past, America Online remains a force that drives millions to the Web. One could argue that America Online did more to popularize the online medium than any other subscription service.
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