OUTSIDE SERVERS A SURPRISE.

Advertising Age, November, 1998

While Mr. Nail finds it surprising that AOL is letting an outside company serve ads, he thinks it's a positive step, and a sign that AOL is loosening up its policies to accommodate advertisers.

"To a large extent, the whole rich media side of things is being driven by advertiser demand," he said. "Advertisers are saying they won't tolerate the limitation on banners ads that put them in handcuffs."

While America Online needs to evolve past static ads, Marc Johnson, senior analyst at Jupiter Communications, said the mantra here should be: "Proceed with extreme caution."

"All the benefits of rich media can be wiped out pretty quickly by error messages or even the perception of a slowed experience," Mr. Johnson said.