History Juno Online Services

the earliest juno logo, circa 1996, year company founded.

juno founded in may 1996 charles ardai, brian marsh , clifford tse, equity capital provided d.e. shaw group , headquarters in same midtown manhattan building shaw. in august 1996, began free e-mail service –- customer install proprietary juno client allow them send , receive email of 35 kilobytes in size. version 1 did not offer attachments or other features. user write emails juno client , periodically sign in dial-up. upon doing so, juno client upload emails user had written, download new incoming emails in online mailbox, , download targeted advertisements, displayed in client. similar qwk , similar less automated offline readers had been used years bbses save phone line connect time.

in june 1998, juno expanded service offer premium support paying subscribers, , added ability browse web in addition use of email. in december 1999, juno began offer same service (minus technical support) free, provided user ran juno client, displayed bar containing advertisements majority of time user online. juno later imposed limits on how usage made of free internet service in single month. free service limited, of middle of july 2015, maximum of 10 hours per month.

with collapse of 1990s dot-com bubble, internet advertising revenues declined , company shifted emphasis offering discount web , mail services similar large isps, @ half price.

juno stock began trading on nasdaq in may 1999, under symbol jweb. in june 2001, juno , netzero, traded on nasdaq under symbol nzro, announced merger. 2 had been in litigation on patent netzero held provide free internet access using ad bar. though netzero held said patent, juno had 6 million members, , far larger. eventually, chose merge rather continue fight in court. september 2001, 2 companies merged present-day united online, , both jweb , nzro delisted.

juno released, along netzero, service purported make web browsing faster. displayed pictures @ lower resolutions, thereby speeding page loads.

in 2001, juno enacted new version of privacy policy. continuing use service, customers implicitly agreed allow juno harvest unused cpu cycles. plan assemble quasi supercomputer using customers s processors, , sell computing services private companies. additional revenue intended keep company afloat after dot-com bubble. customers did not notice change of terms. though customer juno virtual supercomputer service announced, remained unclear, of middle of july 2015, whether company followed through on plan.