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…
a one-stop interface that aggregates fragmented content from social networking sites such as Twitter and Flickr.
In an attempt to compete with other social networks like Facebook and MySpace, Bebo is collecting feeds from Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, Twitter, Flickr, Del.icio.us, YouTube, AIM and others. Bebo said it is correcting a fragmented Web environment.
Time Warner-owned AOL acquired Bebo earlier this year for 850 million dollars and it continues to be a distant third in a global social networking realm dominated by Facebook and News Corp.’s MySpace.
Changes at Bebo include the insertion of a “social inbox” that constantly gathers updates from people’s Web-based email accounts as well as any other online communities they join.
“People want the ability to stay in-touch with their contacts in real-time wherever their friends may be across the Web,” said AOL People Networks president Joanna Shields.
“By opening up our network to the most popular sites and allowing our users to pull in the best of the Internet, we are creating an environment where everyone can easily and effectively manage their online lives, no matter where the individual pieces reside."
Specifically, Bebo’s social inbox offers one-click access to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and user-selected media favorites such as videos, music and photos. More than 100 million AOL and AIM users can log into the Bebo service using existing screen names.
Much of the aggregation functionality of Social Inbox comes from Socialthing, which AOL acquired in August.
Bebo Social Inbox will also aggregate e-mail in-boxes from several services. And, like Facebook, it will have an embedded instant messaging function, using the AOL Instant Messenger network.
A new recommendations engine promises to deliver the most relevant online entertainment — including video, music, groups and games. Bebo’s “media favorites” are based on users’ preferences and aggregated data such as what their friends are watching and listening to and what people similar to them like, subject to appropriate privacy settings.
“By providing key resources and technologies from AOL and Bebo as well as from open APIs from leading social properties, we have been able to create a more appropriate and open social experience,” said David Liu, senior vice president of AOL People Networks. “The social inbox aggregates the most relevant communications, community and content under one roof in an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.
“Our users can communicate with friends and family across the Web and around the world from one single destination while at the same time continuing to explore the vast Bebo community."
Bebo boasts a worldwide membership of approximately 49 million people, with comScore statistics indicating a typical user spends 25 minutes daily at the website.