#11 AOL

What it had: When people were sorted up with CDs and TV for entertainment-- AOL brought in the change. It owned the ISP business, beating its peers, introduced millions of people to internet and chat-rooms, new experience unveiled. 

What it missed: the company seemed to be more interested in sales than in growth. It offered pay per hour internet which was a norm at the time; got many ads. The company gained huge profits. The fall was hard, in 1997, as per the reports, 60.3 percent of AOL connections were dead, mostly due to busy signal. This episode was a late night comedy feed. When world moved from dial up to broad band, AOL missed the train. The customers now are addicted with greater data speeds and calls AOL as old school.

#10 Friendster

What it had: A social networking site that started when Facebook was a far cry. Had no strong peers for competition, could have achieved unlimited success.      

What it missed: Friendster is still popular in Philippines, but that’s not a respite. The success scored by a late starter like Zuckerberg with Facebook could be a matter of envy to friendster. Back in 2002, when it was started it had all the basic elements of a social networking site—be it friending, or writing on wall (called as “leaving testimony”). The site’s popularity grew, which was a matter of joy; but the team failed to manage traffic, so the site crashed, or hung, just behaved oddly. No surprise, the popularity was lost with same speed.