(1) For an information service accessed from a computer. See
World Wide Web,
cloud computing and
online.
(2) For an organization that provides access to the Internet, see
ISP.
(3) Prior to the Web, online services such as AOL and CompuServe contained a unique mix of databases and resources available via dial-up modems. Email was provided but only between members of the same service. See
AOL,
CompuServe and
portal.
After the Internet became popular, all proprietary services added Web access. Email systems were either switched to the Internet's SMTP mail protocol or their proprietary formats were automatically converted to and from the SMTP standard. The following online services predate the Internet explosion of the mid-1990s. See
SMTP.
AOL (America Online)
Internet access, variety of databases
aol.com
CompuServe
Internet access, variety of databases
compuserve.com
DataTimes
Newspapers, magazines, financial
DIALOG
Largest collection of databases
dialog.com
Dow Jones Interactive
Finance, daily news & news searching
factiva.com
Genie
Internet access, BBSs, roundtables
LexisNexis
Legal and news information
lexisnexis.com
National Library of Medicine
MEDLINE and MEDLARS databases
nlm.nih.gov
Prodigy
Internet access, variety of databases
prodigy.com
Questel - Orbit
Patent, trademark, scientific, news
questel.orbit.com
West Publishing/WESTLAW
Legal databases
westpub.com