Filed under: Business, Design, AOL
AOL.com launches a new redesign and it doesn't suck!
Download Squad isn't alone when it comes to awesome redesigns -- today, Weblogs Inc.'s parent company, AOL, launched a totally redesigned AOL.com. It looks pretty great, especially when you compare it to the other portal offerings from Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. The biggest change comes in the form of allowing direct access to outside content -- including e-mail providers like Yahoo and Gmail, social networks like Facebook and MySpace and links to non AOL sites via a new RSS reader built into the site.
I had the opportunity to talk to James Clark, the VP of the AOL.com portal, about the redesign process, both from a business and web development level, as well as ways AOL is hoping to use the newly designed page to help transform the AOL brand.
Redesigning a site of any scale can be a challenge, but redesigning a site that receives over a billion PVs a month opens up an entirely new set of both business and user challenges. Starting in 2007, the AOL team started doing research on how its competitors display the web and more importantly, how end users (not necessarily AOL users, just Internet users) use the Internet. James told me that what they found was that the "one size fits all portal was outdated and outmoded." In this day and age, even traditional AOL users get content from multiple services and expect a level of control that traditional portals just don't give them.
Last month, AOL addressed those needs by implementing the ability to check and view e-mail from other providers -- like Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail -- directly from the AOL.com page, the same way AOL users can access AOL mail. Today's redesign continues with that trend, offering access to MySpace, Facebook, and AIM (Twitter and Bebo support will be complete very soon) all from AOL.com. You can even update all profiles simultaneously directly from the toolbar.
Additionally, users can add their own links to pages right at the top of the screen (and you don't even have to register or login to access any of this stuff -- not even Google will let you customize stuff without logging in with a Google account). Probably the coolest feature is at the bottom of the home page. AOL has integrated an RSS reader into the page. It comes preloaded with categories and websites, but you can add your own categories and your own sites. Even more interesting, the sites aren't just AOL properties. In the Tech section, for instance, CNET, TechCrunch, Slashdot and Wired are all listed -- and none of those sites are affiliated with AOL.
The new RSS browser built into AOL.com
In addition to offering access to outside content and services, the new site continues AOL's transition from being averse to web standards and technologies, to being, as James called it, "militantly standards compliant." I know; I didn't ever think I'd hear the words "standards compliant" and "AOL" in the same sentence either. This represents a gigantic shift from the old AOL, which used to try to build everything proprietary and ignore set standards, to a new development team that is focused on using standards and public facing APIs to do everything.
This is what James sent me as far as what the new AOL is running, from a software and hardware perspective:
The new AOL.com is run on an entirely standards-compliant and nearly all open source-based foundation of Apache Tomcat, MySQL, MemcacheD, Java, running on Intel Hardware. Some additional components that we wrote will be taken open-source in the future, as we endeavor to use open-source wherever possible. All of our 3rd party data is retrieved via public APIs and RSS Feeds, including our content pulled from internal sites and applications like AIM and Bebo.
Although the new AOL.com is much better looking, aesthetically speaking, than its former version, users that prefer the old design can still use it. The old design will be maintained and kept available until users stop requesting it. This is yet another shift in how large portals address redesigns. By keeping the old design available, the more change-averse core AOL dial-up user doesn't have to learn something new.
But as James pointed out in our conversation, the redesign isn't just for AOL subscribers or current users; AOL is really looking to change its image and broaden its appeal. Honestly, although I long ago supplemented web portals with my own RSS links and collections (Variety.com is my home page), if I were choosing a portal today, what AOL is offering comes much closer to meeting my needs than Yahoo or MSN. The social networking aggregation alone is pretty innovative -- not just for AOL, but for any service. This enhanced focus on the user, rather than the brand, and a commitment to web standards shows off a great direction for AOL.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Marc said 8:22PM on 10-30-2008
Interesting coming from a company owned by AOL, Looks like a giant ad.
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stephenseebaran said 8:34PM on 10-30-2008
I like the new features, but it's information overload. I feel there's a better way to present the new items without feeling overwhelmed.
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Chris said 9:55PM on 10-30-2008
There is. It's called Netvibes.
Josh said 8:35PM on 10-30-2008
I love bias almost as much as I love shameless advertising.
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FeedME said 11:52PM on 10-30-2008
whoa this coming from the guys that killed winamp. I must say they have been rather progress in the last couple years. Too bad no one cares.
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Shawn said 9:28PM on 11-02-2008
I prefer the look of yahoo to the new look of aol.com
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caseforprez said 10:47PM on 1-01-2009
dick
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pugi said 10:49PM on 1-01-2009
a
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pugi said 11:04PM on 1-01-2009
dada
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