I have never used the audio & video search engine called Singingfish. But many people have, and they are most probably pretty annoyed at the fact that today the site simply disappeared, being replaced by AOL Video. You’re guessing it, right? AOL purchased Singingfish back in 2003. The site provided a unique way to search for music and videos, it was doing well and AOL’s purchase seemed a logical step for both companies.
This is one of those times when it’s good to remember that when a big company purchases a smaller one, it’s usually not good for the users. AOL doesn’t give any notice or details on why this audio and video search engine was shut down. The site is gone, nothing to see here, move along. That’s no way to treat a customer, even if the service were free.
What’s worst about this is that there’s no good way for customers to react to this. Since the site was a search engine, I doubt it has many forums devoted to it. They can send e-mails to AOL, but nobody sees those except AOL, and they’ve shown that they don’t care much. So, except for a few outcries on a dying Digg story, the users will have to adapt and move on. I wonder how they will react the next time AOL decides to buy their favourite service?
*update: for more info on this story read my analysis of the events surrounding AOL’s purchase of Singingfish.
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I wondered what happened to it!? singingfish was such a great site for rare finds.
The one reason i hate AOL. that walled garden crap
@obi: well, this kind of behaviour is definitely going to direct some hate towards AOL.
Crap. That was the only site that pretty much guaranteed that its music wasn’t going to infect my computer. Now I have go back to altavista search engine (which is very annoying to find the right music) and risk getting a stupid mp3 virus. Smart move, AOL, e_e
I share your frustration
I cant belive what they did!
It used to be that I could just type what I wanted and get it, and it was easy to download from their site legally. Now AOL just redirects to their F%$^ing AOL Videos where you cant do half of what you could with the real Singingfish
This is NOT what ANYONE Should ever EVER do to their customers.
I cant belive it! I cant stand it!
Try using BlogDigger…its not as good as Singing Fish was..but it helps some.
this is ridiculous.
i hate aol
give me singingfish back!
is there anything for us to do?
ahhh im so frusterated.
if we cant get singingfish back… is there another web site as good as it, that serves the same purpose? let me know, thanks.
sniff, sniff…
I really want singingfish back. In fact strike that, I need singingfish back. It was my absolute favourite site. Also, it was my homepage for the past year, and when I logged onto my pc the other day, I was horrified to find that AOL Video came up and singingfish had ceased to exist.
Why did it go? No one knows- AOL arent saying anything. Blatently obvious though that they bought out singingfish. And now, all we can say is thank you AOL (sarcasticly). You took away something that so many people used and can’t possibly have costed much at all, without even thinking about how many people use the service, and how it could affect your reputation.
Even if you don’t bring it back, at least tell us why singingfish went down in the first place.
I used to go to singingfish at least once a day and there’s absolutely no way I will be using AOL video that often. In fact I probably won’t. It has a horrible search engine and I can never find what I want. Plus I cannot search solely for audio, etc. My only option is video and that simply will not do.
I tried to find an e-mail address for AOL to complain and figure out what happened and even navigating their website was awful. I found an addresss for their uk version but nothing else.
Ahh.. So sad to see singing fish go. It was so easy to navigate and use. I would always use it if i wanted to look up a Jazz song or something just to sample what it sounded like. Bah.. Damn you AOL! Damn you!
Ahhh!
Should have looked it up before i posed BUT
Apparently all the people that made singingfish were laid off from AOL.
Though one techie that worked on singingfish still works there, they’re not supporting it in anyway.
THUS the shutdown of singingfish.
Very gay? Yes. Yes indeed.
Proof(from some random website)
http://www.trenchmice.com/scoop/2/
Noooooooo, not my singingfish!!!!! h8 AOL now
Although there was a way yesterday to get it back (typing in the ip number instead) however I don’t think this works anymore.
this is so wrong… do you think we could convince the guys who originally made singingfish to remake us a better version under a dif. name??
Why did you have to kill singingfish?? I don’t care if you own it, but don’t take it away completely!!!!
We don’t want to watch your dumb AOL videos (small selection compared to singingfish).
I rarely looked for videos. I want the WM and MP3 files!! :(:(
I hope your plan folds.
Everybody knows AOL is worthless =/ I’m just sad that Singingfish originally sold out to them. Ohwell =/
I hateeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Aol.
I hope AOL goes down the drain
ok
how can aol do this
so many people relied on singingfish for rare song downloads and it was perfect and when i found that it was taken away, i was reallllly upset.
someone of some authority or something should help bring it back, i have no clue how to.
Singingfish is where I could find all the great songs in one place and in one easy search. Hard to find remixes were found on singingfish, underground music, world music and just about everything else. Icould show my friends sweet songs I had heard on the radio. There is no good alternative to singingfish and hopefully someone will create a good replacement, maybe. Just make sure they don’t sell it to some piece of shit company like AOL that only gives out free internet trial CDs. Thanks AOL myabe you’ve made some friends now.
omg i cnt believe they got rid of singingfish =[ im cheesed off lol is there any way they cn bring it bck
Singingfish was the best. It was the #1 site I used to get mp3 links to put on myspace, or even just to download. Now, its gone. AOL, HAD to take over and it totally sucked. I didn’t really like AOL and i pretty much HATE it now.
I knew that AOL had something to do with singingfish a while ago.. but this… just not right. Limewire is what i have to resort to, and myspace music.. can’t find what i want the same way.
Thx soooo much AOL >: c|
Sigh. dear aol. u have screwed over many a people. at first, when aol links and etc. appeared on singingfish’s banner ads i actually clicked on them cuz wutever the fish supports, i support. however, now that aol has bought singingfish and killed off the best website u can probably ever have to serach for that paticular niche music, (ie. super rare videogame soundtracks ala FF series) the fish found for me. thks aol! go screw urself please or give back the fish.
I loved singing fish…it was the best website for finding songs that i couldn’t find on any other site…i hope they bring it back or bring back a version of it…if AOL can’t match it im not gonna be happy….they shouldn’t take something away when they have no back up plan or no way to beat it
Noooooooooooooooooooo i used singing fish to download mp3s
does anyone know another site i can use to download music
(death to aol)
i hate the fact that u closed down singing fish, it was my favorite site… please bring it back
Singing Fish was a great site, I used it a lot to show examples of music to my friends, or find stuff I couldn’t find anywhere else. AOL just screws everyone like always. Had so many friends that kept getting charged even after they canceled their subscription.
Burn in hell AOL. RIP Fishy.
Singingfish was pretty much the best thing in my life.
AOL fills me with hate. They didn’t even post a warning or any sort of notice as to wht happened to the site or why. If they bought singingfish in 2003 then why is it the repercussions are only beng felt now, nearly four years later?
How am I supposed to complain about this? Is there some little e-box that I can drop a card into? I promise to fill in the little box marked “revive singingfish”.
In anycase.
This is incredibly stupid.
I want my music and there are no alternatives that reach the standard that Singingfish did. It’s not like they couldn’t have left the site up as an extention. They could have just stamped a giant “OWNED BY AOL” link on it and left it at that. What’s the deal here? Cause I’m definitely not seeing any benefits for the users. How rude can you get? You take a site, kill it, and leave no reason why, or even a “sorry this site is no longer in commission” note?
I’m going to stop ranting now.
But if anyone agrees with me their welcome to let me know.
AOL sucks!!!! I hate what they did to singingfish, it was my favourite site ever! Wish the singingfish guys would come back and re-name themselves or something
*sigh* Singingfish was the best media search engine. I used it for my MyFlashFetish multiple mp3 player for my Myspace profile. I think I can still play the songs, but the search engine that I used to find them is now abolished. What am I to do now? Now, when I click the button on MyFlashFetish.com to search for mp3s, I link to a site that totally sucks. When I search for Singingfish and click links, I get redirected to AOL Video, no explanation, no answer. AOL seems to have simply destroyed Singingfish like a nuclear fission bomb to a small helpless mountain village. THANK YOU AOL.
Anyway, I’ve also heard that AOL laid off nearly all of the people who ran Singingfish, just four years after AOL acquired the search engine. What a huge waste. I hope that all the people at Singingfish regroup and soon and create a new media search engine which pwns AOL’s Audio and Video Search. And if they do, I hope that they NEVER let any big company get it’s grubby little hands on it.
Is there at least some way to send an eMail to the guy in charge of AOL and protest about this great annoyance? So many people who used Singingfish now have to result to other cra*** mp3 searchers that aren’t as the least bit effective as Singingfish was.
So, to ALL the people who originally created Singingfish, get back together! Create a new site! Beat the c*ap out of AOL’s search engines!
We will be depending on you!
Mutherf%&*#ing AOL…..I use AOL because there is no DSL or anything here….So I used singing fish because im a DJ and i need music. I was using Singing Fish one day and i went back to search for another song. I typed in the song and then all of a sudden i was redirected to AOL video. My home page was singingfish.com becasue it was garaunteed not to have viruses and im a DJ, i need new music. I used singingfish because it has WMA and MP3s that don’t take that long to download. Try Dogpile it piles up all these search engines like yahoo, google, ask.com, and more…. on the music tab it has Yahoo! Search, Singingfish, And More. I think there might be a backdoor entrance to singing fish.
hey smatti trust me don’t even try to upload a virus onto any aol website especially the mainframe. AOL will delete it as fast as you can say “That peanut butter is infected with the Solmonelsa dieses”. After that they will track your ass down through you IP address and prosecute you to the full extent of the law. Yup thats how AOL is but if you received a “PeoplePC” cd in the mail on the month of January, you would have seen PeoplePC bashing AOL. That shit was funny but itz not as fast as AOL…Itz really slow. You pay for what you get i guess.
AOL POOPS CRAP. STUPID POOP CRAPPING AOL
Chun,
I am one of those original creators — one of the first 15 hires. Although it’s entertaining to consider and I found it very flattering, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for something. The rest of Fishies have scattered to the wind, but we generally do keep tabs on each other.
While we probably could build a pretty slick audio/video search engine again, it’s somewhat like being the champion of the 97 yard dash. We might be the best, but who really cares?
Well, obviously, there are a number of people that care a whole bunch — just reading the comments here makes that obvious. I really do appreciate all the sentiments expressed here. However, I suspect that if you compare Singingfish users to the number of users of other big search engines or media sites like youtube, it would be obvious where the eyeballs are.
Don’t waste your breath looking for an AOL executive to complain to. The real supporters exited years ago. You’d have better luck lobbying a competitor looking for an edge — ask.com for instance. The only vestige left at AOL seems like the audio portion at http://search.aol.com/aolcom/audiohome, but not all the features are there.
A couple of minor points, AOL was not the first big company to own Singingfish — Thomson bought Singingfish in 2000, which sold it to AOL in 2003. The story about the final layoffs on trenchmice.com, however, is accurate. BTW, trenchmice is a product of Singingfish alumni. The wikipedia article on the history of Singingfish is quite accurate.
Thanks for the sentiments.
Austin
AOL IS CRAP AND USES LESS BECAUSE ME AND MY SISTER LIKED SINGING FISH NOW WE CAN’T. AOL U BETTER WATCH OU OR U WILL SUFFER A BIG VIRES THAT CAN DESTORY UR SEVER AND UR COMPANY.
>.
i am so angry i got all of my songs from singfish can som1 tell me a new website to get songs,
I AM SO PISSED!
Singing fish was my favorite site to find the music i love and listen to it easily. It was amazing because there were no downloads or anything that would infect my computer! One day after school i went to find the new fall out boy song, and it went straight to AOL. I typed it in over and over again, and finally realized it was gone. I was crushed.
what the flying f*ck! i love singingfish!
I am so annoyed!!
I only found out about the website about a week before they closed it and i thought it was really good! When i got back from school one day i wanted to find this so i really liked and it went straight to AOL. I kept trying and trying but it didn’t work so i tried on my sisters computer but it didn’t work there either! So i finally had to give in to the fact that it was gone!
AOL Suck!!!!
Omg, AOL DIEEE
http://search.aol.co.uk/web_idx
this should work
I hate AOL!!!!
U know how fast most of the links SingingFish had? Tons!
I mean my roommate and me would hear a radio song, and we’d both say shit, gotta have it! And he’d go to his stupid LimeWire garbage, while i use a browser that searched and downloaded the song within 20 seconds. Fast? U bet it was!
I hope AOL stocks plummets. That’ll get them listening.
I completely agree, I just tried Siningfish and it went directly to AOL and after i find this out im pissed off! AOL sucks. I loved being able to go to singingfish and easily getting .mp3 URLs. >:0
AOL SUX. i loved signing fish.
This is quite honestly the GAYEST thing I’ve ever had to deal with.
This is even worse than MXtabs shutting down (effectively). Stupid copyright laws.
So anyone found a decent non AOL alternative yet?
It looks like we can still do some sort of search through AOL but what’s the point in that if we want to do an AOL boycott?
Everyone on this board now knows what a soulless corporate pile of crap AOL is. However, all is not completely lost. Ignore the AOL Video search, it is totally pants and should indeed be ignored but there is now a beta version of AOL search which has incorporated the Singing Fish search engine into it. Like the Fish, it will now find you URLs, MP3s, Real Media and streams on obscure websites so its worth trying. Its already found many unusual and difficult tunes for me. You just have to forget its AOL and remember they still have the Fish working in the back room although he probably has to wear a suit. He still has all the contacts and can find those rare things you are looking for. Dont just take my word for it though check it out at http://search.aol.co.uk/audio_adv?query=&safe= make sure you select “Advanced Search” You can also try Dogpile which uses several search engines simultaneously, including Singing Fish. Happy Fishing, and see you on the riverbank
I found My daughters wedding song there by brosing … How rude too lose this wonderful tool. If you wish to hurt aol ….simply cancel any funding you now give them. pass the word along please. Sir Ronn
it soooooooo sucks that they took away singingfish;the site totoally rocked………….but if you go to music.aol.com you can at least listen to music on it but it’s nothing compared to singingfish! rip singingfish!
WTF Yet ANOTHER reason to absolutely hate AOL… Now I’m going to have to go back to shearaza for music again. BAH By the way, AOL, your internet service sucks butt anyway. lol
This is very disappointing, I have started to use http://www.g2p.org/ to find mp3’s, its nowhere near as good but it’ll get what you want (not all the time).
ARGH! I’ve been getting really annoyed when I tried going to Singingfish, too. I didn’t know they were purchased by AOL @_@ Dang it. Now I won’t be able to get music for my blog v-v StupidAOL
Just goes to show, when you find something good you have to rape it for all it’s worth before “big brother” “big money” or “Big stupid” comes along to shut it down on us.
It’s hard to understand, I mean really, they had no direct liability, all it did was locate the files on personal websites. The new version seems to exclude the good stuff and I’ll bet that was the plan. Use us to compile a database and then block the content. Don’t worry, they’re full of crap and they know it!
We all know why aol took singing fish off the net, greed. singing fish provided a free way to listen to and get music and that cut into aol’s profits, so corporate america did what it always dose, buys out the little guy and shuts him down. Boo to aol, I hope they get hacked and it costs them billions, corporate pigs.
Give us our Fish back
AOL be damned.
Singing fish lovers unite in victory for the salvation of the fish!
Things will never be the same again… BRING SINGINGFISH BACK!!! Stupid AOL.
i hate aol. i loved singingfish
ugh
but use multiply.com
all u have to do is create a log in, and all the music in the world is there
its actually better than sinigingfish so try it out
What’s the fuss? You can still get the music exactly the same way on the AOL site where Singing Fish used to be. Are you all stupid?
I went to what I thought was going to be Singing Fish today, and am unclear on how to find music the same way on AOL Video as I did before. It was a useful resource, altho I didn’t visit it all that often.
This sucks!!!
I used singingfish to find rare video clips from old 20s-30s movies. AOL video has absolutely NOTHING I want to watch!
And when I saw that they were selling crap made for DVD movies after making a simple search for vintage movie clips, I almost puked.
Who in God’s name would want to watch the crap they have on the site now?
It’s now a toss-up as to which video site is the worst.
Is it AOL video, or the new uber crappy Liveleak?
uuurgh that was basically the only decent, clean, easy way to download single tracks, this really does infuriate me
“A O L = Another Operation Lost” - Why singingfish? That in itself was the very best of AOL and now its in the trash can for good. I had actually come back to AOL, now I wouldn’t go back again, unless google paid me to. The people are saying bring it back and your going to deny them, sounds like a money thing to me.
I have learned from AOL and found ways to get paid online, I have them posted on my website. Singingfish was so nice and now I guess my only choice is limewire.
If anyone knows where to find an alternative to singingfish besides AOL video lets hear it, post here or email from website. http://ehomebusiness.bravehost.com
Bring Singingfish Back !!!
This is all about making life living hell for AMERICANS! Believe it. The foreign sites have more helpful features. Burn AOL!
which divvy decided to take away sinhing fish
bad idea
what singingfish did that i loved was give URL links to use in websites such as myspace and especially xanga.
i know of no other website that does this.
i miss singingfish.
Fucking AOL
There is still hope. Sort of. Singingfish is long gone except for traces of it in other search sites, but there are 10 other search engines, some even better than singingfish.com
http://liquidparallax.com/2007/04/12/ten-best-places-to-search-free-music/
now i actually have to pay for music on itunes.
i have an account on aol, i think im gonna close it - after sending them very evil emails. >:D
I hate aol there is no better audio and video search engine out there that is as good as this. And now I have to worry about viruses from other web sites. aol and it’s stupid audio and aol video search sucks crap.
head on target, the only decent place to search for very hard to find music on the netand what they do replaced by their chessy service who cannot even find some of the most normal to find musics…. I wont my fish backkk and he better be singing
this is an outrage fuck aol!!!! i knew i never liked aol!!! FUCK I CANT LISTEN TO MUSIC AT SCHOOL NOW!!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
g2p.org
use radioblogclub
or airmp3
F*** AOL! SIGNING FISH WAS THE SHIIIZZZLE!! BRING IT BACK!
SINGINGFISH***!!! SEE WHAT AOL HAS DONE???!?!?! ITS GETTING TOO ME… (Aol….. I Hate You)
If AOL had just a little bit of common sense, it would had changed the look and feel but not the search results of those who used singingfish.
yea i used singingfish a lot and then it was shut down, thats too bad :/ i was really upset.
wtf i loved SF not even youtube is as good
try http://skreemr.com
i made this as a sort of replacement for singingfish - but added a few more features.
there’s direct links to the mp3’s and you can preview the songs, add them to facebook etc.
kay this time AOL has gone tooooo far…not only deleting all cool vids and aaAMVs from youtube but also deleting my fav music page!!? *takes out machine gun and kills off all AOL members* FEEL MY WRATH!!!
ya..me 2 found it out..aol did a vey bad thing…..got any other search engines??
I hate how aol simply takes over everything, they are the worst.
I find it interesting what you say here, because even up to the latest log file of mine that I have read (the one for yesterday, July 7, 2007), I am still regularly getting entries that claim http://www.singingfish.com as the referrer. In the past I had thought nothing of it, except that “Oh, it’s probably just some search engine.� Today, however, I decided to go there and find out what kind of site it is and what I can find there, only to be redirected to http://video.aol.com, where I could find no evidence at all of links to my site—even though people are still regularly finding my site through http://www.singingfish.com.
I’m not offended that people are finding my site, but it is indeed strange that people are still—today—finding my site through a site that supposedly no longer exists.
It is indeed a most curious thing, wouldn’t you say?
AOL sucks even more to me now for shutting down singing fish!!!
www.espew.com is a pretty good mp3 search engine
AOL f***ing sucks
I WANT SINGINGFISH BACK!!!!!!
AOL has destroyed singingfish!! The way things are searched there are horrible!! I can’t even listen to the music that I search or even get a sample of the song!! I wish that someone would make a singingfish2 or something haha!! or atleast make a search engine similar or EXACTLY like singingfish!!
AOL… YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
grrr that was so annoying..AOL…over SingingFish…that site made my life easier…and AOL is hardly doing anything for me…AOL..YOU ARE GGAY!
lets take AOL out back and shoot it.
Damn You AOL! only just found out this terrible news, i was just going on the computer to see if i could find a song ive ben looking all over for, i think to myself.. singing fish!… and what do i find. stupid AOL taking over more of the internet. they totally suck. give the little guys a break AOL! at least tSingingfish used to know what we peacful mp3 lovers wanted from a search engine. I fart in the genral direction of AOL and hope it falls apart at the seams!!!!
Guys, take a chill pill. Check this out:
http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/audiohome
It almost works like SingingFish!
I hope AOL slowly dies.
They know they can get away with it because the are the company and we are just little people who put $$ in their pockets. AOL - mark my words - just like the dwindle in Micro$oft, YOUR day is coming.
WHAT!!! chill?? you think we can chill over this -glare- nuthing can replace singingfish!!!!! im so angry i use to use singing fish every day now its gone i have to use limewire AHHHHHHHH! i hate aol f u’z!!!
10 apap hydroco
10 apap hydroco
WTF!!!!!!! SINGING FISH WAS THE BEST SEARCH ENGINE - EASY AND NO HASTLE BT THIS SEARCH ENGINE IS CRAP !!!!
beth said “You took away something that so many people used and can’t possibly have costed much at all, without even thinking about how many people use the service, and how it could affect your reputation.”
What reputation? The reputation of sending out the most ‘trial internet’ CD’s that got developed into WMDs? AOL has always sucked, now it just suckier.
go on this. It will take you to the music download thing
http: //aolsearch.aol.com/aol/audiohome
go to http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/audiohome
Why can’t Singingfish reload it’s own website back up.
Make AOL to leave it alone.Singingfish should never
shutdown.I get the best mp3’s,wav sounds and video clips
there a lot.It’s one of the most top rated free sites
ever.
Singing fish was the best their was and will be, Hadn’t been for GOL (Gay O nline) (AOL) to shut it down. Also, on another blog about this, some dude sayed that AOL has owned Singing fish sense 2003. Here is what that dude sayed: “In reading some web buzz some people who used SingingFish didn’t even know it was owned by AOL and they think AOL just bought them. AOL has owned them since 2003. It had a good run, and it will be sorely missed.” (http://www.jasonblogs.com/search_/singing-fish-is-no-more.html)
( http://www.jasonblogs.com/search_/singing-fish-is-no-more.html )
Here is what Wikipedia put, and this isn’t in the Editable part of wikipedia either.
Singingfish was an audio/video search engine that powered audio video search for Windows Media Player[1],[2], WindowsMedia.com, RealOne/RealPlayer,[2], Real Guide[3], AOL Search, Dogpile, Metacrawler[4] and Singingfish.com, among others. Launched in 2000, it was one of the earliest and longest lived search engines dedicated to multimedia content. Acquired in 2003 by AOL[5], it was slowly folded into the AOL search offerings and as of February 2007 has ceased to exist as a separate service.
Singingfish powered audio search continues to live on for the time being at AOL Search and other AOL properties. However, little if any development has been done since August 2006. Singingfish powered video search is no longer publicly available and is now being re-directed to AOL Video Search.
Looking for a singingfish replacement? Just started a new site called http://sadsteve.com Checkkk it outt! Full length previews and downloads with a good-sized library. Cool artists featured and some good discussion on the music biz.
-joe