(AOL) A US on-line service provider based in Vienna, Virginia, USA. AOL claims to be the largest and fastest growing provider of on-line services in the world, with the most active subscriber base. AOL offers its three million subscribers electronic mail, interactive newspapers and magazines, conferencing, software libraries, computing support, and on-line classes. In October 1994 AOL made InternetFTP available to its members and in May 1995, full Internet access including World-Wide Web. AOL' s main competitors are Prodigy and Compuserve. Start . (1997-08-26)