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Case and Robert Pittman, chief executive of AOL Networks, are working to make AOL even easier. They hope to capture the mindless simplicity of a television: on, off, a channel tuner. AOL says, for instance, that 60% of the calls that spill into its help center come from people who are having basic computer problems--not difficulties with AOL. And many of the problems float around the "Is it plugged in, sir?" level of difficulty. Of AOL's 7,500 employees, more than half spend their days on the phone helping customers. And they get an earful: AOL customers are a cantankerous lot, and many are still dramatically unhappy with the service. "The customers keep us from kidding ourselves," says Pittman, who makes his 72-year-old mom call customer support if she has a billing problem.
In Case's marketing terms, simplicity is what puts the fingers on the mice. A new generation of the AOL software, due later this fall, has been relentlessly tested by potential users--self-confessed computer idiots all. Case's target audience said they wanted the Net organized and edited for them. Who, after all, has time to pore over 10,000 pages in search of just the right nuggets of data? So AOL's new interface offers a nearly seamless link between the Web and AOL. Everything is as neatly organized as a small-town library. AOL has put a frame around the chaotic tumble of the Internet. The frame, Case hopes, will make the Net easier to use, simpler to understand and more carefully edited to keep kids from seeing things they shouldn't see. Above all, need we mention, the goal is to make the Net seem well worth paying for. "We don't really care about the technology," Case explains. "We've tried to recognize that it is a means to an end, and the end is to improve the way people get information and communicate." While Case is worried that the service will lose some of the more technically sophisticated members it has acquired from CompuServe, he hopes a customer-friendly outlook will induce many to stay.
Pittman, who helped build MTV from a low-budget cable channel into an empire of hair and attitude, believes in that consumerist approach. He's fond, for instance, of telling the story of the time when, as CEO of Six Flags, he spent time working as a street sweeper in pursuit of a broom's-eye-view of its New Jersey theme park. Pittman has an intense charm that makes him a natural for AOL's dichotomous culture, where V.P.s brag alternately about late nights and mountain-biking exploits. "I've spent my whole life building brands," he says. "And we're focusing more on brand building than others. My experience tells me that's a good thing." He talks in a soft, deliberate voice, and his vision for AOL is as clear as Case's, though there's always the possibility of an ego conflict between the two.