Prodigy's censorship, as well as its stubborn adherence to the ad-based model, helped AOL gain enough momentum to come from behind and overtake both Prodigy and CompuServe. By 1995, AOL would boast over four million subscribers. Slow and steady CompuServe had ridden the boom to just four million, while Prodigy was at two million and dropping. By 1997, when AOL cemented its dominance by buying CompuServe, which had effectively thrown in the towel, its usership rose to nearly 12 million.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 722