http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yfTibc5Vdg

The link above is an advertisement for Prodigy Services in 1995. Prodigy was the pre-internet service that didn't live up its expectations, similar to many child prodigies that don't succeed when they get older. Back in 1995 people who wanted to go online had limited choices. you either had to use a local BBS or pay a service for nationwide access. Prodigy was a big hit at the time because of its premium service. It was the pre-web service that succeeded in spite of weak long-distance usage. Prodigy had millions of users because it was most people first online experience. people were thrilled because the server offered news, weather, references and sports reports, including emails and advertising.

Prodigy was designed to succeed up until the management decided to censor its content. This began as a good idea to probably reduce traffic, but Prodigy began to start banning negative content such as the word "bitch" as well as take negative comments about advertisers. This eventually got so bad that Prodigy eventually started charging members $.05 per email and flat rate went up to $14.95. Eventually competitors such as AOL took over and was free for users to use.

I see this as a success and failure for Prodigy. Ultimately they failed because they couldn't stay competitive with the newer tech companies, but what they did do was open the eyes to millions of people about online services and to the Internet.