When people say how horrible the internet companies like aol and msn are, are they true? I mean I don’t think I’ve heard anyone not say anything bad about one of them. What makes one company so much better or worse than another? Does one company actually have nothing good or is there just a company who does a one or two things better?

There is definitely some gray area.

Usually, when a company clones a competitor without really improving the concepts behind it, receives angered comments. Especially, if (1) The company has a chronic habit of cloning (2) The company cloned something that many already are angered with

Sound familiar? In case you couldn't figure out it: M$N is cloning AOL.

Oh, right, that's probably because so many more people use AOL than Windows, right?WRONG!
People all over the world are using AOL for business applications, right? WRONG! AOL outsells Windows 2-1, right? WRONG! Whats-his-name who invented AOL is far better known, and richer, than Bill Gates, right?

MS is NOT cloning AOL. Why would they want to take a giant step backward?

There is no perfect computer application. Computing is a young science - nobody has worked out all the bugs yet. If you ask 10 people which is better, this one or that one, you'll get at least seven different answers.

So there's no answer to your question - yet.

Catty