The first shows a huge crowd of AOL members assembling at headquarters with ideas on improving the Internet.

Last fall, he pushed to rid the service of all pop-up advertisements - an annoyance widely cited by AOL members.

The list also included the telephone number, ZIP code and the type of credit card used by each AOL member.

Two years ago, the average AOL member was on line for 14 minutes a day; now it's 55.

The policy change will not allow AOL members to block pop-up ads on Web pages outside the service.

In short, the upgrade is delicious, but it may not be enough to stanch the exodus of AOL members to no-frills service providers.

(I'll pause here for the benefit of AOL members who are convulsed with laughter.)

At that point, 100 million instant messages were being sent by AOL members each day.

(AOL members have long listed their hobbies and other interests in the member directory.)

Each AOL member can permanently store 50 pictures online free and can buy additional storage at $1.49 for each block of 30 images.