This article is more than 2 years old.

December 5, 2012 This article is more than 2 years old.

105-Across: Co. that owns Moviefone

There are many ways to tell the story of AOL and its numerous reinventions, so here’s just one: The New York Times Crossword. With just a few letters, most of which are vowels, AOL is a common crutch of cruciverbalists. (See also: APE, EPEE, and BRIO.)

Below, I’ve compiled nearly every appearance of AOL in the Times crossword from 1997 to 2011, taking the company on a journey from “Prodigy competitor” (Jan. 14, 1997) to “Netcom competitor” (Mar. 29, 1998) to ”Juno rival” (Apr. 6, 2003) to “Gmail alternative” (June 5, 2007) to “Yahoo! competitor” (May 10, 2010)—oh, and finally, “Huffington Post buyer” (Apr. 17, 2011) and ”Company with Patch Media” (Oct. 9, 2011). There are many other gems in between.

The data were compiled from an app for searching Times crossword clues, which was built by Quartz product engineering director Michael Donohoe.

1997

Jan. 14, 1997: Prodigy competitor, for short

Oct. 4, 1997: Cyberspace abbr.

1998

Mar. 29, 1998: Netcom competitor

Jun. 17, 1998: Chat room inits.

Oct. 4, 1998: Part of some E-mail addresses

1999

Apr. 11, 1999: “You’ve got mail” co.

Aug. 3, 1999: Prodigy alternative, for short

Sept. 2, 1999: “You’ve got mail” co.

2000

Apr. 13, 2000: Big letters in cyberspace

Sept. 13, 2000: Yahoo! competitor

Dec. 14, 2000: Company founded by Steve Case

2001

Jan. 16, 2001: Part of many e-mail addresses

Apr. 5, 2001: Company in a 2000 merger

Aug. 31, 2001: Chatroom offerer

Sept. 2, 2001: Netscape purchaser

Sept. 3, 2001: CompuServe is part of it

Sept. 23, 2001: Co. in a 2001 merger

Sept. 25, 2001: Popular I.S.P.

Nov. 4, 2001: Part of many e-mail addresses

Nov. 23, 2001: Part of some e-mail addresses

2002

Feb. 2, 2002: Earthlink competitor

Feb. 26, 2002: It merged with Time Warner

Mar. 3, 2002: Earthlink competitor

May 9, 2002: Popular ISP

Jun. 13, 2002: Co. in a big 2001 merger

Aug. 2, 2002: Big inits. on the Net

Dec. 13, 2002: One way to the WWW

2003

Jan. 18, 2003: Trio after @, perhaps

Feb. 4, 2003: “You’ve got mail” co.

Apr. 6, 2003: Juno rival

May 4, 2003: Partner in a big 2001 merger

May 29, 2003: Media inits. since 1989

Jul. 7, 2003: “You’ve got mail” co.

Oct. 21, 2003: Earthlink competitor

2004

Mar. 22, 2004: Co. that merged with Time Warner

Jul. 18, 2004: MSN competitor

Aug. 19, 2004: Big name in ISP’s

Sept. 29, 2004: Earthlink alternative

Nov. 15, 2004: Netscape’s owner

2005

Jan. 4, 2005: ”You’ve got mail” co.

Feb. 13, 2005: MSN competitor

Feb. 22, 2005: Time Warner merger partner

Apr. 1, 2005: Modern-day corp. giant with a 1992 I.P.O.

May 2, 2005: Yahoo! competitor

May 11, 2005: MSN competitor

Aug. 2, 2005: Co. with a triangular logo

Aug. 7, 2005: Big mail deliverer

Sept. 28, 2005: One way to the www

Oct. 26, 2005: Co. that offers I.M.’s

2007

Feb. 7, 2007: Popular I.S.P.

May. 25, 2007: Part of AIM

June 5, 2007: Gmail alternative

July 13, 2007: Popular ISP

Aug. 6, 2007: Yahoo! competitor

Oct. 27, 2007: Name for Quantum Computer Services since ’89

Dec. 16, 2007: I.S.P. of note

2008

Jan. 31, 2008: Co. with a triangular logo

Apr. 20, 2008: Popular portal

June 15, 2008: MSN rival

July 2, 2008: Alternative to Gmail

Aug. 26, 2008: Co. in a 2001 merger with Time Warner

Oct. 11, 2008: Choice for chat

Dec. 17, 2008: “You’ve got mail” co.

2009

Feb. 8, 2009: Co. with a triangular logo

Feb. 12, 2009: Comcast alternative

May 20, 2009: Netscape acquirer

Aug. 27, 2009: Popular ISP

Nov. 9, 2009: I.M. provider

2010

Feb. 13, 2010: Co. split off from Time Warner in 2009

Apr. 21, 2010: Pioneer in instant messaging

May 10, 2010: Yahoo! competitor

May 12, 2010: Gmail alternative

July 29, 2010: Internet giant

Aug. 11, 2010: Yahoo! competitor

Aug. 12, 2010: Quantum Computer Services, today

Dec. 4, 2010: Co. with many keywords

Dec. 10, 2010: Part of AIM

Dec. 25, 2010: Company with an I.P.O. in both 1992 and 2009

2011

Jan. 2, 2011: Instant messaging pioneer

Mar. 9, 2011: Popular I.S.P.

Apr. 17, 2011: Huffington Post buyer in 2011

June 14, 2011: Company in a 2011 merger with the Huffington Post

June 20, 2011: Yahoo! alternative

July 5, 2011: “You’ve got mail” co.

Aug. 15, 2011: Time Warner spinoff of ’09

Oct. 9, 2011: Company with Patch Media

Oct. 16, 2011: Co. that owns Moviefone

Dec. 5, 2011: “You’ve got mail” co.

Here’s a Google spreadsheet with all of the raw data, including the day of the week that each clue ran, so you can see how difficult it was intended to be. (Clues in the Times crossword get progressively harder from Monday to Saturday.)