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 James told me that what they found was that the "one size fits all portal was outdated and outmoded."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.

Qbox is a search engine/media player combo that lets you find and listen to music available from social networking sites including MySpace, Bebo, and YouTube. The interface is a bit more complicated than it needs to be. If you just download the standalone media player for Windows, you'll be told that you need to sign in if you want to search for music.

Search results are displayed in your default web browser, which is odd because the Qbox media player acts as sort of a stripped down browser for playing web audio and video clips. Don't ask us why it won't display search results.

Now here comes the important part: Qbox is not compatible with Firefox 3. If you conduct a search from the media player or the web site using Firefox 3, you'll get a list of songs. But when you click the play buttons next to those songs, you'll be told that you haven't installed the Qbox media player if you're using Firefox 3. When we logged into the web site with Internet Explorer, everything worked properly. But when we tried to search from songs from the media player interface, the results were again displayed in our default browser, which was Firefox 3. There doesn't seem to be a way to select your prefered browser from within the software.

You can also click on genre tags to browse for songs within the media player itself. Qbox is currently available as a public beta, so it's possible the company could improve the interface and adds Firefox 3 compatibility.

[via AppScout]

AOL completed its acquisition of social networking site Bebo today. You may remember that AOL announced it would buy Bebo for $850 million back in March. According to InformationWeek Bebo will be the center of AOL's new People Network business unit. Heading up this business unit is Joanna Shields who will serve as president. This "People Network" will consist of three AOL services: AIM, ICQ, and now Bebo.

While Bebo is most popular in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, AOL is hoping grow this upcoming social network in the US. Silicon Alley Insider seems to think AOL will layoff employees working in the AIM/ICQ division due to the restructuring process.

What do you think? Did AOL make a good decision? Do you think this acquisition puts AIM at risk? Be sure to voice your opinion in the comments!

Disclaimer: AOL is the parent company of Weblogs, Inc. which owns DownloadSquad.

[via InformationWeek]

AOL has picked up social networking site Bebo for a huge wad of cash. While we didn't really see this coming, the move makes a lot of sense. AOL's audiences tend to skew old (you know, except for the fine young folks who read AOL-owned blogs like Download Squad), while Bebo is big with the 13-24 set and has 40 million registered users.

While Bebo doesn't have the name recognition of Facebook or MySpace in the US, it's huge in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand. And it does have a considerable US audience as well. Perhaps most importantly, regular users click on an average of 78 pages per day, showing a high level of user engagement.

[via paidContent]

Microsoft became the market leader in operating system deployment largely by making its OS and software available to any hardware maker that wanted to license the technology. Apple, on the other hand, has always insisted the its OS should only run on Apple-labeled computers. So while Microsoft is often slammed for not being "open," the company owes much of what it is to early openness.

And it looks like Microsoft arch rival Google may be playing the same card when it comes to social networking. The company's OpenSocial social networking platform allows third party companies to partner with Google. While Facebook opened up its API earlier this year, allowing third parties to create applications, Google has attracted some major players, including MySpace, Six Apart, and Bebo, LinkedIn, Ning, Friendster, Plaxo, and Hi5. That's sort of the equivalent of getting IBM and HP on your side.

But here's what makes OpenSocial different. You'll notice that some of the big names in there are other social networks. That's because OpenSocial is a platform, not a website. MySpace, Friendster, and other social networks partnering with Google will use OpenSocial APIs, meaning if you develop an application for one site it will function on all the other sites.

In other words, OpenSocial isn't a social networking site. It's a common set of APIs that will be used by social networking sites -- and Google is behind the initiative, which gives them the same kind of status here that Microsoft had in the early days of desktop operating systems. You know, if you think desktop OSes and social networks are comparable, which they're probably not.

eBay is on the lookout for strategies that attract a younger demographic, and given that the new generation hangs out online, social networks are looking like a viable option for them.

The Wall Street Journal reports that eBay is looking towards the Bebo social network which caters largely towards teenagers. eBay has listed out some thoughts on how this Bebo team up would work: Bebo users would be able to list items they wish to buy or sell, when listed items are clicked on, a list would send the user to eBay.

Simple strategy, but will it work? If the items are attractive enough to that demographic it should. eBay has also recently looked into MySpace possibilities that would work in a similar way, and currently have a partnership with Facebook. The Facebook partnership allows users to search for used textbooks in an eBay sponsored store on the social network.

eBay's average user hovers between 35-44.

[via PaidContent]

Yesterday I mentioned that media giant Viacom is rumored to be courting social networking site Bebo for a possible acquisition. Now comes news that Bebo has overtaken MySpace in the UK with the help of its new music service Bebo Bands. For the week ending August 5, Bebo was the most-visited social networking site in the UK, according to Hitwise. Hitwise says Bebo users also stay on the site longer--on average about 29 minutes compared to 26.5 on MySpace. Mashable has more details.

What do you do when you're a huge media conglomerate and the huge media conglomerate across the street owns the biggest social networking site in town? You buy the next biggest social networking site in town, of course! Okay, so Bebo isn't actually the second-biggest social networking site in the U.S. (that would be Facebook, according to Hitwise), but it's pretty darn huge, and in a move mirroring News Corp.'s acquisition of MySpace, Viacom is considering a Bebo buyout. Last year Viacom lost to News Corp. in the $580 million bidding war for MySpace, and according to the Financial Times, "Viacom has approached Bebo but its plans are at a very early stage." Bebo reportedly turned down a recent offer from U.K. telecom conglomerate BT Group to the tune of $550 million.

According to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, social networking site Bebo, which claims 25 million registered users and a large user base in the U.K., recently turned down a $550 million acquisition offer from U.K. telecom conglomerate BT Group. Compare to MySpace, which sold to News Corp. for $500 million last summer, and Facebook which turned down a reported $750 million. Bebo appears to be taking a gamble similar to Facebook's, reportedly asking for more than a billion dollars from potential suitors. Facebook, of course, did not win that particular gamble, as no offers of anywhere near that magnitude have come its way since then, but nevertheless the site doesn't seem any worse for it.

Reading a lot of articles about social networking, one gets the impression that the consensus is that MySpace is peaking. MySpace will ever die, I think, but whether it will be the destination it is now in five years seems doubtful. Right now no other site holds a candle to its critical mass, but that doesn't mean everyone else is resting on their laurels. Blogger Fred Stutzman has written an interesting article called Social Networking: Five Sites You Need to Know, in which he examines five of the most promising, but low-profile, contenders for MySpace's throne. On his list are Cyworld, with 90% penetration among South Korean youth, Bebo, which has 20 million registered users and is especially popular in the U.K., Hi5 with 40 million users and a strong presence in India, Faceparty, a long-established U.K. brand with 6 million users and an interesting monetization scheme, and XuQa, a service with just 1 million users aimed at the college set, which Stutzman describes as "purposefully racy, full of game-like features-an anti-Facebook." He concludes with some sound observations about social networking trends. If you're interested in social networking but as sick of MySpace as I am, it's worth a read.