New York -- In a surprising turn or events, just four days after personal profile startup About.me, threw its doors open to the public, has been scooped up by web portal AOL on Monday for and undisclosed sum. It will be incorporated with the consumer applications division, led by AOL exec Brad Garlinghouse.

New York -- AOL's MapQuest has finally announced the launch of “360 degree views,” to its maps today, a feature that saw the day of light almost two-and-a-half years after Google first added similar images to Google Maps Street view. Currently, it is available for 30 cities and 13 suburbs in the United States, with more to come soon.

Of course, it takes a long time to photograph major intersections across the country and add the data to and online mapping service, but in the meantime, Google has been able to take advantage of that head start, along with other unique features, to surpass MapQuest's once large lead in the mapping market, which is likely to become even more significant as smartphone adoption increases, according to HitWise.

San Francisco -- AOL unit Bebo social network on Wednesday rolled out a new feature called “Social Inbox,” to collect e-mail, social networking, and media recommendations in...

Ask.com lately introduced the beta versions of Ask.com France, Ask.com Italia and Ask.com Nederland, representing the company's most recent expansions in Western Europe. The beta search sites are available in each respective country at www.ask.com and can also be accessed directly from any country at: www.fr.ask.com, www.it.ask.com, and www.nl.ask.com.

Following the launch of Ask U.K. in 2001, Ask Espana in 2005 and Ask Deutschland beta in 2006, the new sites extend Ask.com's reach into the rapidly growing European search market...

America Online announced plans to add search options to its podcast offering by this fall.
AOL has become the latest Internet player to tap into the podcast craze, launching a podcast search service. The firm has secured a deal with search engine technology firm Podscope to add a podcast search capability to the AOL search engine.

A podcast "Search and Discovery" feature will be added via a new version of Winamp Media Player, while another search option will become available as a result of a new deal with TVEyes, AOL said. The new features are likely to become available this fall, according to the company.

New York -- AOL venturing into capture new audiences has announced a new version of their creatively named AOL HD app, which is now available for instant download on Samsung Smart TV and Google TV platforms.

New York -- Ailing Internet outfit AOL Inc., after making several acquisition during the past few months, on Thursday said it has scooped up New York-based digital advertising company Pictela Inc., the developer of a technology platform for serving and distributing high-definition display ads in an effort to bring magazine-quality photography to banner ads, along with the interactivity digital provides to attract more ad dollars from big brands by selling larger, glitzier ad formats.

San Francisco -- Barely days after separating from corporate company Time Warner, AOL Inc. is negotiating to sell its ICQ instant-messaging service to Russian Internet-investment Russian firm, Digital Sky Technologies, is best known for its $200 million stake in Facebook, according to people familiar with the matter.

Quoting unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal said that talks between AOL and the conspicuous Facebook investor are still in the early stages, and AOL has reached out to other parties as well, according to a person familiar with the talks. The sources said that AOL could fetch somewhere between $200 million and $300 million from the sale.

The move reflects one of the first major action from AOL's new chief executive, Tim Armstrong, who just guided the company through a spinoff from Time Warner. AOL bought ICQ's parent firm, Mirabilis, in 1998 for $287 million and other payments worth up to $120 million.