AOL.com Provides Gateway to Social Networks

Posted by Vaibhav

November 3, 2008

Popular search engine AOL.com has rolled out a refurbished homepage, hoping that it will become a hub of sorts for Web users by letting them access multiple social network services from its main site directly. This move has made AOL the first major portal to provide straight access to information from leading social networking sites, email accounts, etc. without having to switch from one site to another.

With the latest feature of social networking “My Networks” on its site, AOL users would get the benefit of accessing information from their MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter and AIM accounts from the homepage and send a status message at the same time to all of them.

Noting that consumers crave for choice and relevance in their Web experiences with the division of Web, Executive VP of AOL Programming, Bill Wilson said that the company is the first traditional major portal to provide access to recognized social networking sites at a single place.

The firm said that the response from users has been pretty good, pointing to the September figures from comScore Media Metrix. It said that the traffic has scaled up 34% in September year on year.

As per the internal stats, the number of users opting for AOL.com as their homepage has grown by an enormous 500,000. This success is also attributed to its earlier introduced feature of allowing access to e-mail services from the main page.

Wilson stated that over one million cases of users flocking over the Yahoo Mail panel on AOL.com have been recorded by the firm, with several either signing in for the first time or for previewing Yahoo Mail. He continued that AOL has also recorded more than 400,000 instances a day of consumers flocking over the Gmail panel on its homepage.

Along with “My Networks”, Web users would also be allowed to build customized collections of news sources that drive in new content to AOL through RSS feeds.

Moreover, AOL announced further new features and tools to personalize the consumer experience, integrating the third-party content and services from across the Web. To support this plan, the company is offering more robust capabilities for advertisers with the help of its digital advertising business ‘Platform A’. This includes increased rich media capabilities, customized wallpapers, deeper and richer content integration opportunities and much more.

The revamped home page also displays an RSS reader through the Sphere acquisition along with a new local module power-driven by the acquisition of Relegence. This means, entering the name of a city in US or zip code offers a feed of local weather as well as news. Besides, the ‘Themes’ feature enables users to personalize the homepage by selecting a color or backdrop of their preferred design.

At the start, when AOL entered the market, it was considered to be one of the most powerful players in the business. But with time, it had to face heat and hence lost a huge chunk of share to other players in the competition. But with these latest moves, the company is trying hard to recast itself as a well recognized one-stop major portal. Now only time will tell what’s in store for AOL.com in the future!

News