Before AOL took over the internet, there was CompuServe—basically the OG of online services. Launched in 1969 as a business timesharing service, it pivoted hard into consumer internet in 1979, giving regular people access to email, forums, news, weather, and even early e-commerce. This was way before the web blew up. If you remember logging in with a dial-up modem and staring at that clunky blue text interface, yeah—that was CompuServe. By the late '80s and early '90s, it was a powerhouse, peaking with version 3.0 in 1995, right before AOL smashed it in the face with those free trial CDs. CompuServe tried to keep up with CompuServe 4.0 in '97, but the internet was changing fast. AOL bought them in 1998, and just like that, the king of early online access started fading into digital history.