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May 8, 2006

AIM Pages: First Screenshot

Michael Arrington

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More information on AOL’s AIM Pages (the “Myspace Killer“) is out. Staci Kramer at PaidContent has some information and posted a screen shot, below. As we previously reported, the URL for each user will be aim.com/[username]:

From Staci’s post:

AIM Pages: AOL wants to be the 24/7 home base for as many users as possible hence the AIM Page, a social networking site/home page/home base that stays active even when the buddy list is offline. Kerry Parkins, director, key audiences product marketing, calls it “a very natural extension” for AIM”s existing social network. Instead of people joining a created community a la Classic AOL, they have their own with the buddy list they already use at the core.

Unlike walled-garden Classic AOL, AIM Pages is built on giving users ways to collect and connect to various parts of the web — and each other — from one base. For instance, users can add a flickr module. “Our approach is not to get you to leave flickr but to super-set your stuff from flickr,” explained Parkins. Other modules focus on AOL content, like the Top 11 list from AOL Music; options will be limited at first with more modules being introduced on a rolling basis.

Asked what makes AIM Pages stand out from the other social networking sites where users can create a page and form community, Parkins said it’s the publishing tool, which was designed to make the process more simple and the results more attractive. To improve discoverability, AOL settled on an easy personalized domain — www.aim.com/[screenname].

Still in flux: making money with AIM Pages. Parkins admitted, “Advertisers themselves are trying to get a handle on how to monetize in this space. In general, it’s not a great advertising play.” They’re working with advertisers to expand presence beyond the standard “build a profile for the Tom Hanks character in The DaVinci Code” but are concerned about it will play. Parkins: “You can create community around (a) product … but it’s a different advertising model. We really want to let the community grow first and be very vibrant before we introduce a degree of commercialism.” AIM, unlike some social network competitors, claims “significant reach” across all demographics.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, May 8th, 2006 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Decipho

    May 8th, 2006 at 9:32 pm

    The design looks nice and the fact that they’re going to use the AIM names, it could compete with Myspace since a lot of teenagers still use aim.

  2. Tomas

    May 8th, 2006 at 9:43 pm

    If you want to take a closer look at AIM pages and even build your own…

    http://iamalpha.com/.developer/index.jsp

    Go to the “Go to the playground and try it for yourself!” link…

    Its very Alpha indeed.

  3. Chris Matthieu

    May 8th, 2006 at 10:20 pm

    Myspace is to teens and AIM/AOL is to parents. Which group has more discretionary money?

  4. Tom Vendetta

    May 8th, 2006 at 10:35 pm

    Very nice find Tomas. I got my profile :D

  5. alan jones

    May 8th, 2006 at 10:40 pm

    Marketers aren’t struggling to reach parents in the same way they’re trying to reach teens, and it’s myspace’s ability to reach teens that drove News’s buy price for myspace.

    Parents are already easy to reach via MSN Spaces, Yahoo! 360, http://www.aboutmybaby.com, not to mention the homepages of Google, AOL, MSN and Yahoo!.

    I can’t see AIM Pages overtaking MySpace unless they release open APIs or AIM Pages Editors that let teens add modules of anything they want to MySpace, even if what they want is, say, their MSN Messenger buddies list instead of their AOL buddies list, or even some risque home videos from Youtube.

    It’s the very apparent sense at MySpace that the teens are in charge that keeps them coming back for more. And I can’t see AOL being comfortable letting teens get away with that much anarchy.

  6. Ben Bakhshi

    May 8th, 2006 at 10:46 pm

    I actually think more people have AIM than have MySpace. If there is a way to easily integrate the AIM pages with the AIM software on the desktop, I can foresee AIM taking a great position in that market. Now, if MySpace can produce a good IM client then perhaps AIM’s lead in communication will diminish. Until then, i know almost 100% of my college aged friends have AIM.

  7. Social Degree

    May 8th, 2006 at 11:12 pm

    […]Michael Arrington over at Techcrunch has some screenshots of the soon to be released AIM pages….My question is, what in the world took AOL so long to come up with AIM pages?[…]

  8. Aner Ravon

    May 8th, 2006 at 11:14 pm

    AOL has the anti-Midas touch - everything they touch turns to crap. They are so unoriginal and their forte is taking something successful and grinding it down. ICQ WAS IM before AOL killed it only to surrender the lead to MSN. MySpace was born, in many ways, as a result of AOL’s obsession with walled garden. Now they play copy cat…whatever. The users will pass their judgment anyway.

  9. Josh

    May 9th, 2006 at 12:14 am

    Aner, where are you getting you stats from? AOL still commands the Instant Messaging market. See this article from last October: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/n.....messengers … which says that AOL has about 56% of the IM market, compared to 40% for MSN and Yahoo combined. MSN most certainly does not have any ‘lead.’

    AOL has well over 200 million registered users… and most of my college-aged friends still use it religiously. If they play their cards right, this service will compete with MySpace. AIM has a huge installed userbase to work with already. Teenages love to copy each other, so if AIM Pages can attract just 1/10th of 1 percent of their users to open an account, get ready to open the floodgates. I don’t think many people will drop MySpace–but I have plenty of friends who have accounts at Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook. So why not one at AIM Pages to go along with the AIM account they already use everyday?

  10. Lelia Katherine Thomas

    May 9th, 2006 at 12:17 am

    This should be an interesting thing to watch unfold. And hey, I’m all for anything that will keep the emo-woe-is-me kids away from my circles of interest.

  11. Brock Anderson

    May 9th, 2006 at 1:26 am

    Looks just like what the guys over at Zoints are doing. They’ve been going for a month or so now and it’s working really well.

  12. Jonathan Beckett

    May 9th, 2006 at 2:53 am

    Interesting stuff. Makes you wonder how Yahoo will respond with 360…

  13. Jim

    May 9th, 2006 at 5:23 am

    Comment #3 leads to a page that set off my virus checker….

  14. George

    May 9th, 2006 at 5:30 am

    Well I think it’s a little late for AOL to get in the game. Sure they will get some people but they are merely replicating what’s already been done. As a user of both MySpace and Friendster, creating another profile for another service just seems like a waste of time…

  15. DWBjr

    May 9th, 2006 at 6:16 am

    I dunno… whether its the “MySpace Killer” or the “iPod Killer”, it’s a little presumptious to declare whatever it is, a “BLANK”-killer, if they haven’t even begun “La Danse de la Mort”. Just because someone rips something off and adds a few things, doesn’t make it a killer. Just might make it a contemporary, possibly a threat… but “killer” is way up there. I don’t remember anyone brandishing “Netscape Navigator Killer” when Microsoft launched subsequent versions of IE. –It was just another salvo in a “browser war”. PR Companys. Go fig.

  16. kunst

    May 9th, 2006 at 6:27 am

    i agree with george. i think this is too little too late. myspace is 75+million accounts worldwide. it’s gonna be hard to stop them now. it’s like trying to stop a snowball that’s rolled down miles of mountain side. you cant stop it, you can try to mimic it, but either way you’re going to have to accept it’s sheer massiveness. specially with facebook too… i hear they’re allowing high schools? youth market owned…

  17. Yanamandra

    May 9th, 2006 at 7:16 am

    The one area AOL has the edge is they have content partnerships in place and that could mean rich and fresh new entertainment content for the people that signup for this service.

    Other than that there is nothing new here, I wonder why it took AOL to launch this project..

  18. EJ Fox

    May 9th, 2006 at 7:16 am

    Mr. Chris Matthieu, “Myspace is to teens and AIM/AOL is to parents.” What? How many teens or parents do you know?

    Other than that, I rather hope MySpace dies and is replaced by something more developer friendly. If it has to be AOL, then so be it.

  19. Aner Ravon

    May 9th, 2006 at 7:26 am

    Josh, I think you have a few errors in your analysis.

    (1) AOL is still dominant in the US (AIM that is), but AIM is getting butt kicked anywhere else. In the US MSN is closing the gap quickly. I have work experience in the IM industry and know that for a fact.

    (2) I dont see too many people using Myspace, Friendster and AOL in the long run. IAs a matter of fact, most people I know ditch 2 or all 3 after a while. I’m not saying MySpace will be the ultimate winner, but it certainly won’t be AOL. I can share a very long analysis with you about why, but in short - AOL’s corporate culture and structure, decision history, businesses composition and goals won’t allow it. It’s not their game.

    (3) Facebook is a totally different story, in the longer run they will become a mash of myspace, linkedin and classmates, only packaged in a much better way. I dont see how AOL can even compare with that user sentiment.

    (4) as for you and your buddies using AOL religously - hey, I don’t work for their competitors and I have no “interest” in seeing AOL go down. Just calling it like I see it.

    (5) as a user - AOL are the bad guys. They prevented the IM networks from interoperating and they now have the nerve to spin it as their business strategy. Whatever!

  20. Steve

    May 9th, 2006 at 7:30 am

    Although MySpace definately scored a first-mover advantage, I gotta give props to AOL on this one…seems like something they’ve done right for a change.

    AIM is the leading IM network in the US and they have recognized that they already have an installed base of users that have effectively established their “friends.”

    Yes, there isn’t too much revolutionary here but from looking at the screenshots I am pleased with their layout. One thing I can’t stand is how shitty MySpace pages look.

    I am also intrigued by the plugins they talk about. If they do this right (a la Firefox), plugins will be a strong asset.

    Now if only they could make a decent IM client…

  21. Mike

    May 9th, 2006 at 7:57 am

    When will it be released?

  22. Bryan

    May 9th, 2006 at 8:02 am

    Anyone know if there is a way to register for a beta?

  23. Ari Mir

    May 9th, 2006 at 8:43 am

    This is truly a sad story. As an early adopter of AOL and one of the last users to cancel my account, I find it amazing it took them so long to respond to MySpace.

    I look at the screenshot, and I see no sign of innovation. If anyone from AOL is reading this I have two recommendations:

    1) Don’t copy MySpace (admit it, you are)…if you want to survive, copy Piczo.com and add the communication features you have already built.

    2) Fire every product manager you have, fire your entire product development team.

    I am sorry to be so blunt, but it kills me to see a company I was a big fan of take so long to respond to an obvious threat and to respond with a “standard” product.

  24. Travis

    May 9th, 2006 at 8:52 am

    No place for friends fill up your page with comments? No way to cover the screen with giant pictures of friends goofing off? No way to completely destroy the layout and colors with aftermarket CSS?

    I think AOL missed the MySpace generation with this one. Maybe my parents will try it.

  25. chris

    May 9th, 2006 at 9:19 am

    this is not gonna catch on anyways..
    this is just like a another pathetic imitation of myspace, just liek facebook and such..
    a few will reluctantly join at the sight of its brilliance, but the functionality is so low that it’s very unbearable. there’s this one friendspace that i am working on with a partner right now, which has a totally different concept, and i hope it catches on. ill post updates on it soon.

  26. Casious

    May 9th, 2006 at 11:03 am

    All it is is Bolt.com with a couple less advertisements and the name aol.

  27. Josh

    May 9th, 2006 at 11:07 am

    Aver,

    I actually prefer Yahoo’s IM software over AIM or MSN. ;) And I’d still love to see where you’re getting your statistics.

    I think one thing you might be ignoring: Teenagers don’t care about the corporate culture at AOL. You might, but you’re evalutating this from a different angle. The typical 13 or 15 or 19 year old doesn’t care about AOL’s business, they care about talking to their friends and posting stupid pictures and music clips.

    As long as AOL takes a page out of the MySpace playbook and makes AIM Pages easy to use and (relatively) open, and especially if it interacts well with AIM itself, then AIM Pages will be a success. I’ll stand by that.

    You’re right if you are saying that if AIM Pages fails it will be AOL’s fault, but they have a golden opportunity here–better than anyone so far–to take a run at MySpace.

  28. Josh

    May 9th, 2006 at 11:16 am

    (Oops, Aner, not Aver… sorry about that :))

    And to Travis above: Anything that keeps kids from making some of the eye-bleedingly bad abominations of design at MySpace is a good thing in my book.

  29. cynthia erie

    May 9th, 2006 at 1:39 pm

    MySpace is the SH*T!!!!!!

  30. Pete Cashmore

    May 9th, 2006 at 2:07 pm

    Mike,

    Ironically, MySpace just launched their own IM client to compete with AIM:

    http://mashable.com/2006/05/09.....hes-today/

    Fun stuff!

  31. Jon

    May 9th, 2006 at 3:10 pm

    Sounds like a great service….but im to lazy to code another pro! im stickin to myspace…

  32. Ken Rossi :: CivilNetizen.com

    May 9th, 2006 at 11:35 pm

    ok…I would love to know the stats for the myspace beta IM… I think it probably broke every record in the planet for downloads in one day. I just got about 40 bulletins with myspace msgr.

  33. Paul Fabretti

    May 10th, 2006 at 3:17 am

    I feel that there are at least 3 major factors why there will be many challengers but mainly losers to the myspace crown:

    1) Users of myspace feel a sense of ownership of the network. It has expanded from the bottom - up. Users created the content which grew myspace organically as their internal friend networks expanded. Myspace is THEIR space, trading spaces is AOL’s space reserved for THEM.

    2) Have you seen some of the profiles on myspace?! Truly awesome levels of creativity and design which will have taken days if not weeks to complete. Have you moved house recently? Fun isn’t it…NOT!

    3) The momentum which has helped grow myspace is unlikely to be replicated unless there are significant changes/improvements from a new entrant. Even then, unless there is a MASS migration to any one new entrant, the existing mysapce networks just aren’t going to broken up.

    4) (told you there were at least 3 reasons!) Given the press furore and word of mouth surrounding myspace, surely anyone who is interested in this type of network has already set up home and is perfectly happy?

    I just cannot see how someone has taken the time to embed themselves in a network like myspace will want to move networks UNLESS a new entrant provides some significant freebies or additional features.

  34. luanshanlang

    May 10th, 2006 at 11:08 am

    Why not open up the Chinese market,AOL and Myspace and Facebook ?

    My Msn :luanshanlang@gmail.com

  35. Steve L.

    May 21st, 2006 at 9:17 am

    Were do i find some new MS layouts?

    Thanks,
    Steve

  36. Alex

    February 27th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    heyy cool
    okay cool

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