20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 28, 1999 -- Hometown AOL (Again)

February 28, 1999: We closed out February with yet another purple-and-gold Hometown AOL promo. The text promo featured space stuff in Research & Learn, because kids, weekend, school stuff, etc:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 27, 1999 -- College Hoops, With Elton Brand

February 27, 1999: We led with college basketball (getting as close as we could to "March Madness" without violating trademark). You may be shocked to learn that we used a photo of a Duke player, Elton Brand (he would leave for the NBA after this, his sophomore season):

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 26, 1999 -- AIM and "200 Cigarettes"

February 26, 1999: We started off with a new AIM graphic that looked even more like a regular ad (including a red "Click Here!" button), along with Local fun and CD-buying online (with a Grammy name-drop):

For the PM update, mentioned the Nicolas Cage movie 8MM and the ensemble movie 200 Cigarettes, which we didn't even bother to name (though it's the "'80s fluff" mentioned in the promo), relying solely on the Christina Ricci photo:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 25, 1999 -- Lauryn Hill Breaks Grammy Record

February 25, 1999: For the day after the 41st Annual Grammy Awards (held on Wednesday night, which was the style at the time), we kept the same Lauryn Hill photo (as she was the night's big winner), later swapping out for a photo from the event. The My News headline also references the 1999 Galtur (Austria) avalanche:

Then, in the PM update and a reversal in the usual way of things (that is, featuring Entertainment stuff on weeknights), we switched to the standard purple-and-gold Hometown AOL promo.

The My News headline references the death sentence given to one of the killers in the James Byrd dragging death in Texas:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 24, 1999 -- Why Were the Grammy Awards on a Wednesday?

February 24, 1999: We started the day with AIM, online tax help, and Hometown AOL. It was very orange. Now, jump down to the PM update...

...where we led into the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, which were inexplicably being held on a Wednesday night? (I guess the now-standard Sunday wasn't a thing back then; looks like they were held on Wednesdays until 2003, when they switched.) Anyway, we led with a picture of Lauryn Hill:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 23, 1999 -- Stress Quiz and Sports

February 23, 1999: We started out with an stress quiz using an amusing retro stock photo, along with Hometown AOL and online apparel shopping:

For the PM update, we went with another Sports item featuring baseball and Big Unit Randy Johnson. In the My News items, we see a conviction in the Texas dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., as well as more on the Kosovo War:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 22, 1999 -- Tech Stocks Rocket, Plus a Sampling of Finance News Items (Including a Bernie Madoff Cameo)

February 22, 1999: We started the day with a Personal Finance promo on top stocks and mutual funds (along with computer buying and online auctions), which was a nice transition into...

...the PM update, where tech stocks apparently had a good day.

As mentioned, we focused a lot on tech stocks in our Personal Finance features, because of 1. Dotcom Bubble and 2. Stock Options:

 

Side note: As I was looking at CNN Money stories from 2/22/99, here's a sampling of other items:

• Securitas bought Pinkerton's, creating the world's largest full-service security firm
• A check-in on the Microsoft antitrust trial, where the government used Microsoft internal emails during a cross-examination of firm general manager of new technology Daniel Rosen to show that the company did see Netscape as a competitor. (Rosen admitted to composing the email but not sending it. Yeah.)
• A Nasdaq panel voted against trading halts for the Nasdaq, which were seen as a way to help protect small, individual investors—many of whom were new players thanks to online brokerage firms. Irony alert: Quoted in the article: "Bernard Madoff, head of a trading firm that matches buyers and sellers on Nasdaq who supports the use of halts, predicts they will be approved eventually but says they won't be a cure-all. 'The halts aren't going to cure volatility, they're just going to limit it,' he told CNNfn."

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 21, 1999 -- Free Live Chat

February 21, 1999: We dusted off the animated Free Live Chat AIM promo. It rocks! Also, oddly, we used a text link to promote the News/My News Pictures of the Week feature:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 20, 1999 -- What Will Mac (Mark McGwire) Do?

February 20, 1999: We went with a Saturday sports promo with a baseball season preview featuring Mark McGwire, posing a semi-rhetorical question without realizing that the answer 20 years later would include, "not get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame because his career was built on a foundation of performance-enhancing drugs."

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 19, 1999 -- Jennifer Aniston Is Not Beavis (duh): "Office Space" Opens

February 19, 1999: Either we were uncharacteristically prescient in seeing the enduring appeal of the workplace comedy Office Space, or it was a dead movie release weekend, or we just wanted to feature Jennifer Aniston in the lead promo spot, but we led with the Mike Judge film all day (using a really dumb "She's Not Beavis" headline, ugh):

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 18, 1999 -- The Return of Crop-Top Spandex Fitness Stock Art Women and the Departure of George Clooney from ER

February 18, 1999: Another "Tone Up, Slim Down" workout tips promo, along with the AIM sweeps and name-dropping Madonna, Mariah, and Shania for CD buying:

We did a noon-ish update to pull the duplicate AIM sweeps update from the Community column and added some whitespace above the Oscars special in the Shortcuts column:

For the PM update, we updated the lead to George Clooney's Season 5 departure from NBC's ER (also, I think we erred by putting periods in the show's title, though that may have been our style at the time):

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 17, 1999 -- Mortgage Rates, Pitchers Report

February 17, 1999: We led with "Hit 'Em When They're Down" for home buying thanks to low mortgage rates:

We did a noon tweak to the Community column, adding AOL NetMail:

For the PM updates, we pitched the MLB pitchers reporting for Spring training:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 16, 1999 -- AIM, Hometown AOL, Community

February 16, 1999: We started out with AIM in the top spot but bumped it for Hometown AOL shortly after; the My News headline references the death of Nixon adviser John Ehrlichman:

The My News headline captured the opening of the trial in the dragging death of James Byrd; we also rebranded the "Free Products" column as "Community," with a preview of a Community Directory and AIM Web Chat (as I recall, persistent AIM chat rooms accessible via URL):

Apparently, we had too many Try AOL promos in the new Community column; we moved one to the Shortcuts column:

And then the PM update with a color change:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 15, 1999 -- 2 Months to Tax Day

February 15, 1999: We led off with tax tips, along with an Oscar quiz and AIM sweeps:

For the PM update, we went with Spring Break getaways, AIM sweeps, and Hometown AOL:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 14, 1999 -- Happy Valentine's Day

February 14, 1999: We brought out the 3d-heart again for the lead Valentine's Day promo, along with Daytona 500 coverage and Hometown AOL:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 13, 1999 -- Last-Minute Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

February 13, 1999: Last-minute Valentine Day's ideas and gifts (which in 1999 I think just meant e-cards), along with Hometown AOL and the AIM sweeps:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 12, 1999 -- Clinton Acquitted

February 12, 1999: The Senate was nice enough to acquit President Clinton early enough in the business day as not to disrupt our weekends; in fact, the vote preview version of the page only lasted for a few hours in the morning:

We went up with the "It's Over: Senate acquits Clinton" lineup at around 12:42pm. The My News headline is in ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS; in fact, I think the My News folks even pumped up the font size before we had them take it back down to mostly normal (as I seem to have misremembered for the impeachment):

Another PM update with a photo swap:

For the PM update, we cleaned up the headline so it didn't go over the limit; along with some inconsequential promos for Valentine's Day and Hometown AOL:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 11, 1999 -- Arms of Steel, Hearts of Sugar

February 11, 1999: For the AM lineup, we led with workout tips in Health, along with spring break escapes and Hometown AOL:

In the PM, we went with Valentine's Day, AIM sweeps, and more Hometown AOL:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 10, 1999 -- More Stupid AIM Sweepstakes & Valentine's Day Promos

February 10, 1999: In the AM, we had another of the same $2,000 AIM sweepstakes promo, plus Hometown AOL, and Gourmet & Grocery. In the ad block, you can see that 1-800 Flowers basically had a spot locked up for Valentine's Day:

For the PM update, it was mostly the same, just moving V-Day into the lead:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 9, 1999 -- Oscar Preview, Senate Deliberates in Clinton Trial, Lycos

February 9, 1999: For the AM, we went with Gwyneth Paltrow for an Oscar night preview (on Tuesday?), Valentine's 1999, and Hometown AOL; for the PM switch, we just changed the HTML block colors.

In the My News headlines, we see two stories: The Senate began deliberating in the Clinton impeachment trial, and a merger between Home Shopping Net and Lycos. Clearly, the two stories were equally important, and had similarly lasting impact. (Also, "The new company will advertise its Web services on USA Networks’ cable TV shows, and Lycos’ Web sites will include ads for TV. USA Networks will also merge its Ticketmaster operation with Lycos.")

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 8, 1999 -- Tax Time and AIM Sweeps

February 8, 1999: The lead morning promo featured tax preparation help, along with Hometown AOL and Computing. In the My News headlines, we see a reference to the death of Jordan's King Hussein, who'd died shortly before.

In the PM update, we switched to the AIM sweepstakes, while the My News headlines switched to King Hussein's burial and the closing arguments in the Clinton impeachment trial:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 7, 1999 -- Grant Hill and the Start of a Shortened NBA Season

February 7, 1999: The lead promo featured the Detroit Pistons' Grant Hill for the start of the lockout-shortened NBA season. (Gee, I wonder if his being a Duke star player factored at all into the photo selection. Nah.)

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 6, 1999 -- More Hometown AOL

February 6, 1999: By this time, I'm guessing that I too was pretty sick of that stupid purple and gold Hometown AOL promo graphic. Nevertheless, it persisted.

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 5, 1999 -- Mel Gibson Is Not a Blonde Woman

February 5, 1999: The lead promo, "Should You Pay to See Payback?" was for the Mel Gibson movie Payback. Because Mel Gibson is not a blonde woman, we went with a photo of co-star Maria Bello.

The other text promos were for Hometown AOL and shopping for videos (VHS, of course) and DVDs:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 4, 1999 -- Sweets for Your Sweetie, Health Tips, and Double the Headlines

February 4, 1999: We continued the Valentine's Day gift promo photo from the night before, along with the $2000 AIM sweepstakes, and online car buying. We also added Valentine's 1999 to the top of the Shortcuts column:

For the PM update, we switched to Health tips (with a shirtless guy for a change) and an NBA season preview.

In the My News headline area, you can now see two news headlines. I believe they went to their respective stories (instead of taking you to the main page and forcing you to hunt for what you were looking for and clicking again... believe it or not, we sometimes had to fight to be able to direct link to content, since doing so cost us a pageview).

I don't recall ever having any headline truncation issues (like a naughty word inadvertently appearing due to an unfortunate cutoff); I think it's because we had some hard headline character limits on the My News side.

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 3, 1999 -- Hometown AOL and Valentine's 1999

February 3, 1999: In the morning spot, we switched to the familiar purple and gold Hometown AOL promo:

For the PM update (no headline because it was a preview), we featured Valentine's Day gifts, as well as Black History Month and Computing:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]