This blog's parent company AOL is planning some major updates to two of its cooler web services, Xdrive and BlueString. Xdrive is an online file storage service that gives you 5GB of space for free. But right now the service is hampered by a somewhat clunky interface. BlueSting is a recently launched service that lets users upload and arrange digital media to create personalized timelines.

This week AOL launched a series of BlueString Facebook applications under the My Memory Gallery label. The company also plans to create standalone widgets that you can use to embed timelines on blogs and other web sites.

We're much more excited about the forthcoming desktop versions of BlueString and Xdrive. AOL is using Adobe Flex and AIR to create desktop interfaces for these web apps that will let users upload and arrange files simply by dragging and dropping them from their desktops. No need to upload files before you can start arranging your timelines.

The new version of Xdrive will be called Xdrive Oxygen and is set for a February release. The desktop version of BlueString is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2008.