RSSAOL Preps Image Makeover on AOL.com
By David Worthington and Nate Mook | Published June 21, 2005, 11:30 AM
America Online, acknowledging that its subscriber base is declining, is relying on its Web presence to re-brand itself and dislodge customers' mental associations that it is nothing more than an ISP.
In an effort to earn a new reputation as a leading Internet destination, AOL will open up to a wider audience on the Web through AOL.com. The portal will re-launch in beta form on Tuesday, offering visitors free Web mail, exclusive audio and video content, and access to a number of AOL services previously available only to subscribers.
Since the beginning of 2005, AOL has fleshed out its open Web strategy one grain of sand at a time. The company began by revamping its search properties to be easier to use and locally relevant, then proceeded to open its AIM presence to partners and online communities. A new public face for the SingingFish media search engine followed, along with its own Web browser called AOL Explorer.
In April, AOL announced it was partnering with XM Satellite Radio to make available 130 of its radio stations and 20 XM stations for unlimited listening at no cost. More recently, AOL rolled out free Web mail for AIM users with 2 gigabytes of storage, and is now preparing to overhaul the AIM client to an open platform called Triton.
All of these elements have been brought together to form the new AOL.com, which is expected to officially go live in late July. The focus of the site will be on emerging trends, resulting in a juxtaposition of services that range from the familiar search features, to broadband multimedia content and integrated RSS feeds from around the Web.
A feature called LiveWeb further underscores the desire of AOL to reach out to the masses. AOL editors will scour the blogosphere for hot topics and link interesting content directly from AOL.com. The company hopes the new AOL.com will bring back the perception that it can be as modern as its rivals.
Despite the impression that AOL is simply a dial-up provider, the company draws nearly as many unique visitors across its properties each month as Web leader Yahoo. But an image makeover won't be an easy undertaking, AOL director of product marketing Kerry Parkins conceded to BetaNews.
"A lot of people have this perception of AOL being this declining dial up service and when everybody talks about AOL they say, 'all of the members are leaving,' and that's the way that they characterize our company," Parkins said. "The reality is that AOL has a very profitable and quickly growing Web business."
One of the things AOL is doing to aid this transition is taking advantage of new trends such as RSS, or really simple syndication, which the company says isn't actually that simple. AOL will apply to RSS its aptitude for making things easier with the launch of "My AOL" in July.
all i can say is aol is the best and maybe aol 10 shuld happen as aol 9 seems to have been around for a good few years now
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|Okay, the web site will be viewable from any OS, but the client software (browser, radio, everything but Instant Messenger) is being developed exclusively for Windows. So as far as I know a lot of this great new content will be Windows-only.
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|Why would you need images when you can access the real thing... Bravo BetaNews *yawn*
http://startpage.aol.com/beta.adp
For information on what's new and what to expect: http://channelevents.aol...hattoexpect/aolcom.html
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|Originally, the beta site wasn't live.
Don't be a hater, it's unnecessary.
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|Good lord, abother remake? Of course it only works correctly in IE. AOL's is freaking bed with Microsoft. Their AOL client software is a shell for IE. The AOL Browser is also a shell and lets not forget Netscape Browser. I feel sorry for that pore firefox that's been made to coexist with IE in one shell.
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|Where do people like YOU get your facts?
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|Well, THAT is a little uncalled for, especially since YOU fail to explain how his facts are wrong and/or why he is a loser. Although his facts may not be entirely accurate, that does not automatically make him a loser, and there is no evidence here to support that he is anything more than only slightly misinformed.
That being said, let's set the facts straight...
AOL is not in bed with Microsoft, quite the opposite really... I think they HATE Microsoft, which is why their software is always breaking Windows configurations, which in turn ticks people off and convinces them that it's Windows that's at fault.
AOL Client software is NOT a shell for anything... it's a bloated honk of manure that bundles the "AOL Browser" (an IE Shell). Netscape 7.2 and earlier were NOT shells for IE in any way shape or form, however, 8.0 is both a shell for IE *and* Firefox as well as a huge honk of bloat leftover from 7.x.
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|Ok, so I may have been a little misinformed about the AOL client. I guess I do need to clerify myself on the netscape side. I did know that prior to Netscape 8.0, Netscape was in no way a shell. Now I'm gonna try not to be as immature and rude as the first person that responded to me. I'm willing to admit my misinformed opinion and I apologize for anything I said that wasn't exactly accurate.
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|Hmm...I don't think I've seen a single positive comment from KSzostek yet. Mainly just "LOSER! MORON!" comments... usually aimed at me :/
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|Well if you're getting your facts straight, the AOL Client does not bundle the AOL Browser, which is available as an independent beta test and is not designed for AOL Client users.
Netscape 8 is also not based on version 7. It was a rewritten UI based on Firefox. Bloated for power users, maybe, but it doesn't have a "honk of bloat" leftover.
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|Don't take it so personal KRAMY most of your comments are just bashes. You like to bash, just to bash! I hope this is more positive!
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|My Point exactly "Crashoverride" misinformed but needing to say something even when your comments are wrong. Get the facts straight before looking silly, like right now. Case closed!
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|Sometimes the only way to get your facts straight or to learn anything is to first make yourself look silly. Surely you're not suggesting that you always knew everything you know about AOL. That's simply not possible. That one be like saying you knew everything you know about a computer before ever using one.
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|I see...
Edit: Hey cool, you went back to old articles and wrote the exact same thing for several people(that will never bother going to old articles, btw). :P
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|AOL Client has indeed always bundled an AOL Browser which has always been a customized, limited shell/skin for IE. This has been true since AOL 3.0 when it was first introduced.
The stand-alone AOL Explorer Browser is just a new effort to bring it out of the main client. Actually, it makes me wonder... what's with including AOL Explorer along with AIM... don't they already have a browser-client/instant-message program now called "AOL 9.0" ?
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|Crash, please ignore the trolls... it's not his fault, afterall... I'm sure all of his problems with people are their(our) fault, lol.
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|I just don't make stupid comments when I'm not sure.
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|I'm not even sure the second-coming of Christ, Himself, could save the soul and repair the image of AOL... although, actually learning to write good software would be a good effort at trying...
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|LOL, for the second time this week we agree on something. ;-)
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|Heh.. Yeah, something tells me it ain't that far off, concerniong the second-coming. All these pigs flying around, reports of a glacier forming in Lucifer's backyard, Mac switching to iNtel...
MSAOL wouldn't surprise me in the least right about now.
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|nothin suprisin at all.. even worse than yayahoohoo
"rich" contents dun support browsers other than IE..
EDIT: i mean on windows & *nix
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|Works fine in Firefox, and on a Mac.
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|Nate,
try click on those CNN, MTV video clips.. My firefox (Windows XP) is not supported also..
it even wrongly identifies my Fedora Core 4 / Konqueror 3.4.1+ as Macintosh... though Apple's Safari browser is actually based on KDE Konqueror browser ("WebCore" rendering engine is based on "KHTML" rendering engine used by Konqueror)
[screenshot]
http://r1cky.com/aol.jpg
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|Well Linux support is a stretch, you can't even view QuickTime videos on Linux anyway. But that same exact clip worked fine for me on Mac OS X.
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|BTW, the only reason i install Linux / KDE is to use a KHTML browser :p
if someone releases a Windows port of Konqueror, or even Apple releases Safari for Windows, I will stick with my Windows XP before my next PC, probably a Mac
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|uh...isnt the site a beta?
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|These idiots can't comprehend the word BETA.
Look what they are using on their machines.
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|That's not entirely accurate. You can't view Quicktime with Quicktime for Linux because there isn't one, however all the major players will use the quicktime codec to play quicktime video on Linux.
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|File this story under "Who cares!".
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|New front cover, same crappy content.
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|CNN, Time Warner, Time Magazine, music videos, live concerts including Live8, Warner Bros., HBO, Moviefone, CityGuide, MapQuest, etc.
Yeah, definitely crappy content. /sarcasm
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