ICQ Sold to the Russians

[HentMas]

"The Russians"?

Got to love good old US way of saying things. If it was Germany, France or whatever it would be "sold in Germany/to Germany".

THE Russians is like something out of an espionage/Cold War thriller.

its part of the "them-us" ideology that persisted over the cold war... i think

i propose we all make an ICQ and add all the people we know in the Escapist, just because!

 

[bjj hero]

I used this all the time when I lived in Texas about 11 years ago, used to use it to coordinate Quake 2 matches. I thought it was the dogs bollocks at the time. I'm glad its still got life somewhere.

 

[Plurralbles]

well, the cold war's been over for quite while so no worries.


Also, the US people gotmoney for it.


Also, insert "in soviet russia" joke here.

 

[Plurralbles]

I was hoping that the fact that ICQ was inveted by Israelis would be noted.

... nah, I was about to say that was ironic but it's not quite.

 

[Russ Pitts]

WOLVERINES!!

 

[Ithera]

ICQ and I had a rough farewell. Spam-bots and other filth had made our relationship untenable. These days I make use of MSN and steams message service.

 

[RyanBishop]

Kinda logical, methinks. ICQ is really popular here in Russia. At least I can see 4 out 5 school kids using the thing. Never personally liked the thing though... Skype's better for me these days...

 

[Flying-Emu]

All these tech stories are bringing on a severe nostalgia bomb. Dialup internet... mmmmmm. I remember when it used to take ten minutes to load flash games and you could be dropped thanks to someone using the telephone... at the time though, it was goooood stuff.

We've come so far, haven't we? I doubt anyone thought, twenty years ago, that we'd have games with hundreds of thousands of players online at the same time, interacting with each other and whatnot.

Argh MMO rush.

 

[Krythe]

"The Russians"?

Got to love good old US way of saying things. If it was Germany, France or whatever it would be "sold in Germany/to Germany".

THE Russians is like something out of an espionage/Cold War thriller.

Hey, I'd take that as a complement. It's the closest thing to a title in the modern world. No one calls us "The Dutch" or "The Americans". Having "the" at the start of your name carries a certain bearing.

Also, obligatory Russia Joke:
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/7/30/128618864605761700.jpg

 

[Klarinette]

Heh, I remember ICQ. When I was first introduced to the intranets, it was what everyone used, so I used it sort of out of necessity. It was either that or AOL messenger, but no one seemed to like AOL. Plus, some were fortunate enough to have cable modems early on, so didn't have to deal with AOL. I don't know when Windows Messenger came out, but thank god for that.

 

[RyanBishop]

Also, obligatory Russia Joke:
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/7/30/128618864605761700.jpg

Funny stuff =)
Actually speaking of presidents, I believe the current president Medvedev has an ICQ... maybe got hacked recently? Thus the deal was made =)

 

[Hoplon]

I always thought it was hilarious that it seemed AOL bought mirabilis primarily so AIM could establish any sort of presence. Thusly, I wouldn't call the $353.9 difference (with inflation) between buy and sell prices a loss. ICQ was the IM service outside of aol's resource hog client. The fact AOL bought it was the only reason anything else got any sort of presence, as everyone I knew (and everyone they knew, and so on) on that thing jumped ship to the nearest non-aol product simply because of aol's dogshit reputation.

I know this is why i stopped using it.

Anything AOL was horrible, i just auto assumed this would rapidly become horrible.

mind you I was a teenager at the time.

 

[samsonguy920]

I didn't even think ICQ was still around. I still remember fondly my message alert..which oddly enough is on the registers at the convenience store for cigarettes and alcohol now. Uh-Oh!
Wow, that's two pieces of nostalgia in one day. Maybe it might be a good time for the good ol Escapist to operate the Wayback machine and bring back the 80's and 90's for old time's sake. That would be fun.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Russia is a lovely country a bit corrupted, kinda like the US only the US dose not know it. =;_;=

 

[Jared]

Well, they are welcome to it...I used it for a very small time but for me never clicked

 

[samsonguy920]

400 million in dotcom money in 1998 and now 187 million? isnt that profit really ^^

It is where AOL's thinking goes. They were probably thinking of just giving it away for free.

WOLVERINES!!

Very funny, Kane. We know you bought ICQ as a secret communication system to get more Tyberium. How dare you mock our greatest guerilla/freedom fighters ever! *cries*

 

[Automind]

I wa

"The Russians"?

Got to love good old US way of saying things. If it was Germany, France or whatever it would be "sold in Germany/to Germany".

THE Russians is like something out of an espionage/Cold War thriller.

its part of the "them-us" ideology that persisted over the cold war... i think

i propose we all make an ICQ and add all the people we know in the Escapist, just because!

I was thinking the same thing. It think it's time to retire that phrase. "A company in Russia" would have worked fine...

 

[Icehearted]

ICQ was the first IM I'd ever used, back when 56k was blazing fast, and to be honest I haven't used it in years. I don't even know if my number still works or what. I doubt anyone I used to know on that thing are even still using it.

Now that I think about it, I haven't IMed anyone outside of XBL years. Damn, am I really that antisocial?

WOLVERINES!!

HAHAHA!

*sigh*

I miss Swayze

 

[Booze Zombie]

"The Russians"?

What a confusing way of phrasing it.

 

[Yeager942]

Its the international communist conspiracy. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to let them fluoridate our water supply. Who's with me?!