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 James told me that what they found was that the "one size fits all portal was outdated and outmoded."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

Yahoo! has been quietly testing out a new video feature on its homepage: inline videos.

If you have wondered by Yahoo.com over the past few weeks you may have noticed videos such as Barry Bonds breaking the all time home run record, or exclusive Daily Show footage. These were embedded using a preview version of the new inline video player technology that Yahoo! has developed. The service has been rolled out in a new video module that can be found wherever there is a 'play video' button. It allows users to watch videos without leaving a web page. This includes in both email and IM.

Its great staying inside one browser window, especially to watch videos. We all know how tabbed windows seem to grow quite quickly. Yahoo! is the first portal to enable this video technology, with more videos scheduled to launch this week.

Start pages and portals have become all the rage these days, with everyone from Netvibes, AOL (our parent company) and Facebook getting in on the action. Word on the street is that search is a pretty hot market as well, and we can understand if Google and Yahoo!'s tried and true approach doesn't quite cut it for those who demand more out of search. Offering an unassuming, slick and simple UI, smplr is just such an alternative search tool.

Upon your first visit, don't dismiss the single search box and cool background for all walk and no talk (though it is a nice touch that you can change your background via the menu in the upper right). By default, smplr sends all your searches to Google; certainly nothing special. But be sure to check out the legend at the bottom, which lists smplr's bread and butter in the form of triggers you can add to your queries that can direct your search at everything from films, stocks, eBay, PriceGrabber and much more. By adding the proper 1-5 letter trigger before your searches at smplr, you can begin to save quite a bit of time if you're a frequent users of even a couple of the sites to which smplr can direct searches. Heck, there's even a Mac OS X Dashboard widget available under the Helpdesk menu that provides full access to smplr's services.

As a project from Nik Iliadis, smplr has a nice approach and a good implementation so far. If smplr expands its support for more services, it could become a great resource for those interested in a simple (har har) way to use a few keystrokes to direct their search across a wide variety of important services and engines. It will certainly be interesting to see smplr evolve over time.

The reaction to AOL's new web portal wasn't entirely warm, as it looks just a little too much like one of its major competitors. Instead of scratching his head on the matter, our own Ryan Block of Weblogs Inc. / Engadget decided to ask David Liu, SVP of AOL Portals, five questions on the new design and its motivations. As you would imagine from a VP, Liu's answers were riddled with PR-speak that doesn't actually reveal much other than 'yea, we were inspired,' but his final answer does offer some interesting snippets about an upcoming revamp of myAOL.com, another of the company's portals (really guys - how many do you need?). Liu promises some intriguing innovation for the new portal, and even MIchael Arrington of TechCrunch was apparently impressed with some early demos he got his hands on.

While we wait to see those promises fulfilled, check out Ryan's interview with David Liu to gain at least a little insight into why AOL's new portal looks just a little too familiar.

There's no shortage of CMS or "portal" building tools out there. Drupal is one I've come to trust and its feature set is hard to beat. But many require a certain amount of heavy lifting or at least tweaking to get running. Enter Geeklog-- a so-called "portal in a box," or to hear them say it, "The Ultimate Weblog System." I don't know about ultimate, but I will say the installation and configuration process is pretty darn simple. The most cumbersome aspect will be creating a SQL database (wish I had a nickel for every time I've said that). After you've got your database mojo, it's a straight shot to unpack and install and start working.

Geeklog is no slouch in the added functions, as there are apparently a large number of plugins and add-ons. It's not all sunshine and roses, as there are limited templates and the usual quirks and gotchas. Linux.com has an excellent review, and brief guide to getting started. Geeklog might not be everything you've been looking for, but if you want something quick and dirty (and at some point, don't we all?), it might be a good fit. I should mention they're working to improve the tool by using bounties: a small sum paid to developers (courtesy of sponsor AOE media GmbH) for implementing user-requested features. So with any luck, Geeklog will flourish in the coming months.

[thank Dolores for sending this in!]

The folks over at Netvibes have been very busy as of late. In the last few weeks they've released 10 new international versions of their "customizable Web 2.0 home page/portal solution" (buzzwords aside, it's a terrific service). If you haven't given it a try yet, perhaps one these new versions will entice you: Greek, Turkish, Quebecer, Ukrainian, Russian, Danish, Canadian, Polish, Brazilian and UK.

If you want to help Netvibes to build a local version for your country, I'm sure they would be thrilled if you contact them.

We haven't been following the My Dream App contest as closely as our pals at TUAW, so in case you're not up to speed, here's the scoop: My Dream App is an "event where 24 finalists compete for a chance to have their dream app made into reality." At the contest's outset, people from all over the world submitted their ideas for the program of their dreams, and from those people a pool of 24 contestants was assembled by a panel of judges. Then those 24 were whittled away over five rounds by judges, many of whom could be called celebrities, like Steve Wozniak, Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, J. Allard, and Merlin Mann. Yesterday the final eliminations were made and the three finalists, whose ideas will be made into Mac apps, and who will get royalties on said apps, were revealed. The three winners and their dream apps were:

3rd Place: Michael Yuan - Cookbook. "The ultimate cookbook application, with online grocery shopping, thousands of recipes, Leopard voiceover technology integration, shopping list sharing, and more."

2nd Place: Farzad Sadjadi - Portal. "File syncing from the future. Sync folders and documents between Macs effortlessly and watch transfer progress through a cool, highly visual wormhole user interface."

1st Place: Cameron Westland - Atmosphere. "A virtual window to the outdoors for your desktop. View a virtual representation of your area's weather when too busy to go outside."

All of the the runners-up are also worth checking out (especially if you're looking for ideas for your next app), and all of the finalists and runners-up will be getting some pretty cool prizes.

Wikidot is providing free webhosting to wiki sites and social networks using an AJAX interface. Wikidot launched in August when the developers were looking for a free wiki to host a software project. The service generates income by ads, premium features and partnerships. Wikidot's service is easy to set-up with some great features including:

• sitename.wikidot.com - nice clean domain
• create and edit pages quickly
• invite people to edit pages
• 100 MB storage
• RSS feeds
• RSS exports

The Wikidot service can also be used as a personal homepage, or a spot to store data that can be accessed from anywhere without knowing any coding or html.