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Ask & AOL

2013
AOL Appoints Industry Veteran, Erika Nardini As Vice President For AOL Advertising
January 7, 2013 at 12:57 pm 0

New York -- AOL, Inc. in its quest to compete with industry rivals, attempts to revitalize its emerging marketing unit, and over the weekend the company succeeded in appointing industry expert Erika Nardini, to assume the new position of vice president, head of marketing solutions for AOL Advertising.

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2012
AOL Unfurls “Entrance” Entertainment App For Windows Phone
September 6, 2012 at 1:12 pm 0

New York -- In an attempt to keep pace with the advancing web frontier, and to demonstrate its seriousness about the success of its latest Lumia devices, Nokia is jumping in bed with AOL today, touting a “first-of-its-kind” augmented reality feature, which permits users to find movie theaters and showtimes nearby by glancing through theaters, movie posters, and times that appear overlaid on a local map. (more…)
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2012
AOL Rolls Out Ads On TV App For Samsung, Sony, Roku Devices
August 13, 2012 at 1:35 pm 0

New York -- Struggling to keep with the advancement AOL is rolling out a new version of its connected TV app, AOL On Network, is getting a new look and expanding to more platforms with a new video ad-serving capability, the company said over the weekend.

Interestingly, the latest version 2.0 of its connected TV app will now be available on Samsung Electronics Smart TVs, Sony Electronics and Roku over-the-top devices, adding the ability to serve pre-roll ads against 380,000-plus short-form video clips. The app will also be available in a beta phase on TiVo through its premiere DVRs.

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2012
AOL Mail Gets First Makeover In Five Years With Much Smarter Look
July 30, 2012 at 2:07 pm 0

 


New York -- Relentlessly striving to compete with its rivals, yesteryears internet pioneer AOL over the weekend, unveiled a completely revamped version of its stodgy old e-mail service with a cleaner shiny new design, after an astounding five years without major change, a move that could help it retain the 24 million users it has left from moving to competitors.

Beginning in December of last year, AOL began unveiling a new version of the service to its 24 million users. And now, this is the first major overhaul since 2007, and the new AOL Mail trims down on the clutter, the company said, and adds app-like access to other services.

 

AOL Mail's new design

The service now supports a design with less clutter and an ad bar that has been moved from the top of the page to the right side. Next, the chat window as well has moved to the lower left corner of the inbox, much like Gmail's GChat window. Click the tabs above the AIM window for quick access to contacts, events, and to-do lists, which AOL dubbed “mini apps.”

“People have email fatigue, so we wanted something more stylish and lighter than in the past,” Joshua Ramirez, senior director of product for AOL Mail, said in a statement. “We are spent a lot of time with an emphasis on improving the design and experience.”

David Temkin, SVP of mail and mobile, asserted that redesigning this service was, “kind of playing with fire.” AOL e-mail drives “a ton” of traffic to AOL content sites, “from Huffington Post on down,” Temkin said. “There is just lots of money and users on the line.”

To his credit, Temkin, completely agreed about the fact that this is overdue. “The market has changed and people have higher expectations for user experience,” he said in an interview yesterday. “Our visuals and interaction design was dated and suboptimal.”

Continuing he said, for me at least, getting an email from an AOL address is like a blast from the past -- but 24 million people still use the product. The Mail audience tends older and a bit more female. “It is almost like flyover territories,” Temkin noted about tech-savvy people's blind spot for AOL.

“A large number of users have been with us since the '90s,” Temkin said. “Not the majority.”

AOL Mail's old look

On top of a cleaner design, above the inbox, there are also quick links for starting an IM or text message, as well as a refresh button for email. Notably, people can IM each other using AIM, Facebook chat, and SMS all while looking at the inbox. The company promised easier-to-read fonts and icons, as well as new options for customization. Users can also customize the look of their inboxes with more than 40 colorful themes.

Going forward, AOL Mail ranks as the No. 4 service, after Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft mail. Can it move up in the rankings? I'm skeptical about that, but it does have a committed audience, and not only do they deserve a modern product but AOL really should be making some money from them too. “We want to turn AOL into a growth product,” Temkin says.

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2012
AOL Touts New Online Hub For Video Content At “NewFront”
April 25, 2012 at 12:35 pm 0

New York -- AOL, the web giant on Tuesday unleashed a new programming hub for online video content at its digital content “NewFront” that will comprise of 14 content channels and centralize all AOL video in one place, especially aimed at luring TV buyers with takes on familiar concepts, such as crime-scene investigations and housewife angst, that have made fortunes for the networks in the last decade.

The announcement is being made on Tuesday at AOL's 2012 Digital Content NewFront at Highline Stages in New York City, the equivalent of the television upfronts for online video companies. The new hub entitled as “AOL On Network,” which the company believes that 60 million North America consumers will tune into 14 new content channels that will bring together curated videos from the likes of Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum and Adrian Grenier and original programming, including the launch of seven new series. (more…)

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2012
AOL Acquires Photo-Sharing App Hipster To Bolster Mobile Team
March 16, 2012 at 2:19 pm 0

New York -- In a novel twist of events, struggling web pioneer AOL has just announced that it has acquired a cool iOS and Android photo-sharing app called Hipster and its namesake company for 'low seven figures,' according to TechCrunch.

For those who are not familiar, Hipster is an iOS app which lets you send “digital postcards” via your phone. Launched in 2011, its applications and website allow more that 100,000 users to create their personal digital postcards from photos taken on iPhone and Android devices, containing location data, that can be shared with your friends and family.

 

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2012
AOL Unveils Its First iPad Optimized Website With HTML5
February 17, 2012 at 12:57 pm 0

New York -- In an attempt to make it easier for iPad users to browse their content AOL has unveiled a tablet-optimized version of their signature website designed in HTML5 especially for the iPad users. The site is so conceived to reap benefits of the iPad's touch screen and to provide iPad users with seamless access to AOL's content and services.

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2012
AOL Adopts Blinkx To Power Video Search, Drops In-House Truveo
February 14, 2012 at 12:10 pm 0

New York -- In a surprising victory for Britain's popular video search outfit Blinkx--that has won the right to power AOL's video search. Internet leader AOL announced Monday that it has forged alliance with Blinkx, to replace Truveo as AOL's video search feature, briefly spiking its shares this morning following the announcement.

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2012
AOL Appoints Rachel Fishman Feddersen As First CCO To Lead Its Troubled Patch
February 10, 2012 at 12:45 pm 0

New York -- In a surprising move AOL Inc., which has been investing immensely heavily in content to bolster-up its dawdling sites for declining revenue, today announced that it has appointed Rachel Fishman Feddersen, as an executive for the newly created position of Chief Content Officer for its struggling Patch platform catering to over 850 hyper-local news network.

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2011
MANY MORE WALK OUT OF AOL; GARLINGHOUSE AT THE APEX OF ALL
November 18, 2011 at 11:58 am 0

AOL might have been facing a few problems of late, but this one would be at the apex of all. A number of sources noted that Brad Garlinghouse, senior AOL executive has left the company. It was noted that Garlinghouse’s departure news came admist a slew of high-profile defections among Aol’s media properties. Garlinghouse is the third top executive to leave in recent months.

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