Good News, AOL e-mail accounts, software to be free

AOL will give away e-mail accounts and software now available only to its paying customers in a strategy shift likely to accelerate the decline in its core Internet access business.

The decision, announced Wednesday by AOL parent Time Warner Inc., removes the few remaining reasons for AOL subscribers to keep paying when they already have high-speed Internet access through a cable or phone company.

AOL hopes that by making services free, it can draw Internet users to its ad-supported Web sites and keep them from defecting to Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news), Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which have offered free e-mail for years.