AOL Feeling Sociable

October 30, 2008: AOL continues to move toward becoming an all-purpose portal, as it's now letting users tap directly into social networks right from the new AOL.com. AOL recently began offering direct access to Yahoo mail and Gmail accounts from its homepage as well.

The new "My Networks" is being rolled out now, with tabs that show updates from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, and, of course, AOL's own AIM, with links to go to the sites and apps directly, and in possibly the handiest feature, the widget lets users update their info on several services with just one post.

"As the web becomes more fragmented, consumers want choice and relevance in their web experiences," said AOL Programming EVP Bill Wilson. "AOL.com is the first traditional big portal to offer access to popular social networking sites all in one place."

AOL has also debuted new features that will let site users personalize their AOL experience, with more control over how content is displayed, customization for the main navigation bar, RSS feeds on the homepage, and new design colors and themes.