CompuServe

CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American <a href="/facts/Internet/Xw1rVvJU">Internet</a> company that provided an <a href="/facts/Online_service_provider/MSe2Ta87">online service</a>, the first major commercial one in the world. It opened in 1969 as a <a href="/facts/Timesharing/LE5XT9Go">timesharing</a> and <a href="/facts/Terminal_emulation/yNfevBJd">remote access</a> service marketed to corporations. After a successful 1979 venture selling otherwise under-utilized after-hours time to <a href="/facts/Radio_Shack/EHzYMpkP">Radio Shack</a> customers, the system was opened to the public, roughly the same time as <a href="/facts/The_Source_(online_service)/0d9e4cyS">The Source</a>.
<a href="/facts/H%2526R_Block/d6c35Rsx">H&R Block</a> bought the company in 1980 and began to advertise the service aggressively. CompuServe dominated the industry during the 1980s, buying their competitor The Source. One popular use of CompuServe during the 1980s was file exchange, particularly pictures. In 1985, it hosted one of the earliest <a href="/facts/Online_comic/jEHn5btQ">online comics</a>, <a href="/facts/Witches_and_Stitches/w2dh2jA1">Witches and Stitches</a>. CompuServe introduced a simple black-and-white image format known as RLE (<a href="/facts/Run-length_encoding/3k6x9afM">run-length encoding</a>) to standardize the images so they could be shared among different types of microcomputers. With the introduction of more powerful machines enabling display of color, CompuServe introduced the much more capable <a href="/facts/Graphics_Interchange_Format/HfIBWrIC">Graphics Interchange Format</a> (GIF), invented by <a href="/facts/Steve_Wilhite/d9IAVbLp">Steve Wilhite</a>. GIF later became the most common format for 8-bit images transmitted by Internet during the early and mid-1990s.
At its peak during the early 1990s, CIS had an <a href="/facts/CB_Simulator/5PQcskw2">online chat system</a>, message forums for a variety of topics, extensive software libraries for most personal computers, and a series of popular <a href="/facts/Online_game/UH6ItLnW">online games</a>, including <a href="/facts/MegaWars_III/zFK0xAEN">MegaWars III</a> and <a href="/facts/Island_of_Kesmai/eJVK5SS3">Island of Kesmai</a>. In 1994, it was described as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the others are <a href="/facts/Prodigy_(online_service)/Udxc4zkR">Prodigy</a> and <a href="/facts/AOL/MAbT38QS">America Online</a>)". However, the rise of modern systems like <a href="/facts/AOL/MAbT38QS">AOL</a>, as well as the open <a href="/facts/World_Wide_Web/wvnTrWFq">World Wide Web</a> system, led to it losing marketshare. In 1997, a complex deal was devised with <a href="/facts/MCI_Inc./sxFMcxef">WorldCom</a> acting as a broker, resulting in the company being sold to AOL. New products under the CompuServe sub-brand ceased in 2002, and the original CompuServe Information Service, later rebranded as CompuServe Classic, was eventually shut down in 2009 after 30 years.

CompuServe open-in-new

CompuServe