The company was founded in 1985 and changed its name to America Online only in 1991. Since 1991 the company becomes synonymous with "online service" and grows to become one of the world's largest Internet Service Providers. One of the highlights of the dot com boom/bust cycle was their ill-fated merger with Time Warner to create AOL Time Warner.

Eventually in April 2006, America Online officially adopted its AOL abbreviation exclusively, and dropped "America Online".

More Info: en.wikipedia.org