[jacquesm]

> it's not like many 19-year-old web pages are still around and serving working links either.

Define many.

  mysql geocities
  Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
  Your MySQL connection id is 93532573
  Server version: 5.0.45-log Source distribution
  
  Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

  mysql> select count(*) from master;
  +----------+
  | count(*) |
  +----------+
  | 44366377 | 
  +----------+  
  1 row in set (0.01 sec)

  mysql>

If 44 odd million qualifies as many then there are many such pages, and there are many more besides the ones that weren't caught here and on the archive. The old web is very much around, it is just tiny compared to the new web which is one of the reasons people think it has disappeared.

Yes, old pages do die permanently, but achive.org is doing an absolutely outstanding job at capturing it. The bigger cause of information mortality is not neglect but outright murder, and murder on 'the open web' is a lot harder than murder in a walled garden.

AOL is a special case, and facebook is trying very very hard to be the new AOL. Don't underestimate the risks of not learning from the past, the author is in my opinion not so much dancing on the grave of AOL as they are warning us about our possible future.