This morning AOL is launching a suite of personalized products into beta: myPage (personalized home page), Mgnet (image-driven content discovery and recommendation engine) and Favorites (feed reader and bookmarking). All three services can be accessed via tabs on the main myAOL page.
I’ve previously written about a couple of these - last month I wrote about the Favorites product after seeing a demo, and we also showed a video demo of all three products.
More on each below.
myPage
myPage is a customizable home page, similar in functionality to products offered by Netvibes, Pageflakes, Yahoo, Google, etc. Users can put just about any content they like on the page, selecting from pre-fab modules or adding a RSS feed. In a nice non-competitive touch, AOL is also allowing Google Gadgets, Goowy Yourminis and other third party widgets to be added to the page.
They are also preparing an API to allow third party developers to create their own widgets. Like Yahoo, there is a non-negotiable advertisement included in the page.
As I said above, these customizable home pages are all starting to look pretty much the same - but the fact that AOL is allowing third party widgets on the site is, hopefully, a feature others will add as well.
Mgnet
Mgnet (pronounced magnet) is a news site that tailors itself to what you like over time. It’s also a lot of fun - to start off you are asked to click on pictures that you like, which tells AOL a little bit about your interests.
After that you are presented with a customized news page that continues to learn about your interests over time, both collaborative filtering and active inputs. Users can also click over to “what’s hot” to see the popular news items without individual filtering. Soon, they say, they’ll be adding social features to let users recommend stories to friends.
Personalized news sites have had a tough time. Services that we’ve covered that have entered this space in one way or another include Searchfox (deadpool, assets acquired by Yahoo), Findory (deadpool), Spotback (change in strategy) and Feeds 2.0 (no idea what their status is, site is live). Newcomer Thoof is trying a new angle.
But AOL really seems to be thinking outside of the box with Mgnet by focusing on images to grab the readers attention. Forget the headlines, some of the images shown on the page are compelling. Click on one and see the relevant story, and you’ve taught Mgnet a little bit more about what you like. I really like the service.
Favorites
Favorites is a web based news reader similar to Bloglines or Google Reader, and it is a huge improvement on their existing product.. Like Google Reader, it renders HTML well, and it’s fast/responsive. Importing and exporting of OPML files is available and easy to find on the main page. Shortcut keys also work.
If you add feeds to a folder, the service allows you to create a new feed based on the feeds in that folder. That new feed can be turned into a public page for sharing as well.
The product also includes a bookmarking tool, which actually integrates nicely with the feed reading experience. And if you bookmark a page with a feed, the service will ask if you’d like to add that feed to the feed reader.
Overall I think this is an excellent suite of services. They have to find a balance between serving their massive (and less tech savvy) existing user base and finding ways to push the envelope on new ideas. There is some genuinely new stuff here, particularly Mgnet and some of the features in the feed reader.
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Post
AOL? Thats still around?
Aside from Magnet, who cares? More copycat products from an irrelevant company led by people with no imagination. A personalized news page, what 10 years after Yahoo launched theirs?
AOL’s forumla seems to be take successful products from others, add lots of advertising and sit back and watch as no one uses them.
Allen,
Please send us any feedback or suggestions you might have on how to make the new myAOL personalization suite the best it can be. We would love to hear your ideas.
Best,
Frank Gruber
myAOL Product Manager
@Andew: Sorry but the ‘AOL? Thats still around?’ joke is unoriginal. To the point of this post, hats off to AOL for going beyond the run of the mill ‘MY’ offering by including a reader and ‘Mgnet.’ I just played around with Mgnet and it’s actually really nice. I hope this sends a wake up call to others trying to deliver recommendation services. Most of the one’s I’ve used are horrible. I’m not quite sure how My AOL fits into Time Warner’s overall strategy but I like that they’re breaking into new territory.
I got tired of being around of different tools and different sites looking for consolidated information about what the status of my site. So I decided to make a report that looks like this.
This is a basic report not an automatic generated work. This is done manually with specialized tools.
The most important part is the recommendation part.
http://www.oursheet.com
AOL and dinosaurs still exist?
Good to see new products
Why do people who think they are intelligent, like Andrew and Allen above, even bother with their negativity? If you carry this into your personal relationships, as well, you must be “fun” to be around. Hats off to AOL, STILL around after all these years and STILL thriving, for continuing to find products for the masses that work. Keep up the good work and let the negative people out there bury themselves.
The reader and Mgnet are both pretty cool. Take a look at it first before commenting.
Veri
I echo Margo’s and Keith’s sentiments. In a world of second chances, I think we should recognize that AOL is doing some great and innovative things — Mgnet, for one, is very cool. Not asking you to refrain from exercising freedom of speech, but grow up and at least come up with concrete criticism - preferably constructive!
Well they have a point. AOL is the training wheels for the internet for some.
Most of the folks stay on AOL because they don’t have any sense to leave or just plain scared of what is out in the real net, out from behind AOL’s massive proxy farm.
They don’t know the AOL’s business practice and history and how they screwed millions of people out of hundreds of millions of dollars of the years.
Anyone can bring up google or yahoo and type “AOL Sucks” and will get 2 to 4 million web page hits, and a majority state the same thing.
New tech? What company did they buy out or borrow for this?
RawGutts,
In reference to your questions about myAOL’s new technology, we actually built this from scratch primarily in our AOL Mountain View office. We did leverage the help of some partners like Google to use their Google Gadgets, Goowy Media for some of their yourminis’ widgets and Sphere for related blog content from the web but the large majority of myAOL was home grown.
We are looking to continue to be open and work with 3rd parties as it is the ‘Web 2.0′ way.
Thanks for the comments.
Frank Gruber
myAOL Product Manager
It looks quite a bit like the beta my.yahoo.com site. Granted there is only so much you can do to a customizable home page, but my first thought was that I had clicked “Home” on my browser (which goes to my yahoo home page)
Why doesn’t AOL die?
Looks like a great set of tools and you’ve convinced me to try it out.
Does it support for MediaRSS / video and podcasting?
Obviously, there are a few people that aren’t exactly AOL fans reading the blog, but you have to give them credit for trying. They still have a huge membership base, and my parents and grandparents still use them, although they have every opportunity to switch to a faster provider…
Most people outside of Tech don’t have any idea what we all do day to day or why, and obviously not how. I personally don’t use AOL’s services, but I credit them with trying to bring more web 2.0 like services to the larger general audience.
It seems a lot of people have a preconceived notion of AOL from their CD days (which is not unwarranted). However, if you have been paying attention over the last few years AOL has been remaking itself, dropping their walls, opening their content, and evolving their applications. Not an easy shift to undergo by any means.
In addition, AOL still serves predominantly mainstream users and not the digerati, so they have to be more careful about the timing and usability of applications that get rolled out. You have to walk before you run. I think what we are seeing are still the early steps of a major transformation.
If you dont believe in turn around stories, think APPLE.
ps. Allen Yahoo launched their personalized page 10 years after netvibes (so lets not call them an innovator there).
When will Google purchase AOL?
I actually just took the tour of the new products earlier today — some of them are quite appealing indeed.
Aol still appeals to some folks after all, and I am happy that aol wants them to be happy.
Vijay
AOL is played out. I haven’t been to their site in at least 5 years. But I do know that they seem to have a loyal following for some reason. So I guess its a good thing that they are launching new features for its audience…whomever that is.
Frank, mgnet seems like a pretty cool idea. I would try to keep it all visual and incorporate the text and the voting when you hover over the image…
I think this is an honest attempt; to be ”good” internet citizen.
- However they should put their ”old’ money” with a different name; AOL has been ruined for while now.
- And don’t tell a press release that AOL is now; xxxxxx.com but just do it stealthfully - AOL should fund its own innovation… then roll out those companies to private companies / entities
#21 - there are a lot of people who use AOL still, my mom is one of them. It’s still the easiest way to access the internet.
I agree with #17 Alex as well.
Anyone else notice that AOL is a sponsor of TC20? Things that make you go hmm!
Good to see that small-mindedness is alive and kicking on Techcrunch in some of these comments.
Back to the topic. Hats off to Frank and his crew. AOL obviously hasn’t been the most progressive of the bigger web players, but in what they’ve come up with here they’ve blended a pragmatic and understandable proposition with some innovation, and with a well integrated product offering/design (AOL Money isn’t looking too shabby these days either). AOL doesn’t have a cutting-edge, early-adopter user base, so this could well hit the mark and introduce them to some of the now-maturing tools and services on the web. People in the industry always get so immersed in the latest and greatest that they forget that there’s a world of users out there who haven’t got a clue/don’t care about web2.0, rss, start pages, etc, and the latest innovations.
And what AOL have produced here is way better than the sorry effort that Live.com has become (I was a beta user throughout its development, so feel qualified to comment) and it arguably leapfrogs Yahoo, who’ve stagnated horribly in this space until recently, and who are still lagging horribly if you’re outside of the US (MyYahoo in the UK is one seriously ugly joke).
So here’s to pragmatic, clean, well integrated design that will introduce these types of services to the AOL userbase, and which may also attract new users to AOL.
AOL is still around?
When I first came to work at AOL a year ago I thought the same thing, “they’re still around?” Since then I have met many many couples in their late 20’s and early thirties that love AOL - especially for their children. There still seem to be quite a bit of good will and loyalty for the brand as the net’s trusted safe harbor.
#1 according to Nielsen
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07.....nline.html
@ Margo:
Don’t you know that once you personalize an argument, you lose it?
“If you carry this into your personal relationships, as well, you must be “fun” to be around.”
Oh no, you’re breaking out the heavy artillery now. Back up everyone: People who *don’t* criticize AOL’s has-been, copycat technology (ripping off Yahoo!, PageFlakes, NetVibes, YouTube, LifeHacker, Digg, Google, etc.) are more “fun!”
You MUST be the life of the party…how soon can the rest of us meet you? I’m trying so hard not to howl with laughter I can barely type.
“Hats off to AOL, STILL around after all these years and STILL thriving, for continuing to find products for the masses that work. Keep up the good work and let the negative people out there bury themselves.”
That can just as easily be interpreted as, “Hats off to this money-grubbing company that steals it’s ideas from others and foists them off as their own, who doesn’t just chase an audience but actually stalks it…”
Yeah, you sound like a lot of fun, too.
Frank & crew - Congrats on the launch. Looking forward to playing with it more. The personalization stuff seems especially interesting.
excite.com
Hey Frank, if you’re still following this thread for comments, I for one would be interested in hearing the logic behind your recent moves. For example, are the changes intended to grow your user base, or move your existing user base into a soft web 2.0, which will be capitalized on with later developments and applications. Basically what’s the strategy, if you can discuss that?
New apps come and go, and frankly I’m not one to care who came out first with what (delivery and execution are far more important), but to hear WHY you believe this is where you need to go (versus the competition), I think would be far more interesting and telling.
Thanks
@shambhu, #1 cause of their closed/ proprietary AIM, that has “locked-in” their user base. Like social networks, they have to use AIM, or learn about trillian, miranda, gaim, etc.
Please continue to open up and use standardized protocols and implementations.
Test message, please delete. Having trouble commenting.
Mgnet looks great. It’s the most innovative product I’ve seen from AOL in a while. I love the use of pictures - it makes setting up the personalization seem like less work.
The product lead for it - the creative and talented Jim Simmons - just gave notice. Too bad for AOL.
Disclosure: I used to work at AOL and know Jim.
Get a life AOL! Holy crap another load of high quality garbage. I have no intentions of insulting anyone, it’s only that you need to be creative and be wise. Why does AOL come up with something thats already there?! If you’re making it better that’s a whole different game. You suck and you still repeat..thats what ridicules us.
Mike you should add all AOL products to your deadpool. AOL - you rather spend the money feeding some poor folks than wasting on this, atleast you’ll get a better response or create a new product or improve one..just don’t COPY.
I’m particularly impressed by the folks who slam AOL in one sentence and in the next mention that they haven’t looked at an AOL site in years. I mean come on, things change so fast online, you could compare comments like those to restaurant reviews: if they aren’t current, they’re irrelevant.
If you actually try something and you have something to say, by all means contribute something of substance. Hollow criticism is like prejudice: based on ignorance, contributing nothing, and serving only to bring the level of conversation down.
I’m not a big fan of AOL nor their sleazy business practices of the past, but i have to admit, their ‘mgnet’ site is an interesting idea. Far more compelling than some of the tired but hyped up sites like Pownce.
The concept of having people filter news of interest by visual association is, i think, a wonderful idea. Since AOL tends to attract a more main stream audience, maybe this new site will promote literacy among many who dont like to read…
will people just stop using aol and let it go under already. what is the purpose for aol because thats not the internet. I haven’t used aol ever since i got cable connection back in 2000 and i have never been back. worst social network ever and it was the first. Jazzkeys your right but when i discovered the internet with a fast connection and no middle man thats the type of no going back that im referring too.
So obviously there are a bunch of ignorant non-web critics here hating on a company for no reason. All companies have their downfalls in regards to business practices. As far as innovation and design, magnet is obviously a first attempt at building a very strong image based recommendation engine built for the user and ease of use.
The fact that people hate on a product so quick show that they know nuthing about the release process and time to market and value of getting users attention in order to build off traffic and update the product. Look at the damn iphone, it doesnt even have MMS messaging!!! But you think they wont have it? of course they will, its a great attempt and platform to build off of, which will get better.
My Yahoo is horribly designed and so is Netvibes. The “Me too” aspect of My AOL is of course just getting the feet wet which is definatly ok for starts. The fact that they released a more innovative approach with magnet and the ability to add “canned” tab’s shows that their first release already out performed most of whats out there in the market today.
The small team that built this product has made a huge impact on the net and pushed it forward in a small step with these products. Yahoo’s entire focus has a 5 year head start on the web. AOL has just shifted the entire business model to the web and already released a product better than My Yahoo, by starting at the “bar” which is the basics that yahoo has, and google and then INNOVATING on it.
Now , tell me where they are so horrible or went wrong?
get a clue
FUCK AOL! and that’s alll i have to say.
Dude the AOL name carries so much baggage. Even if Jesus Christ himself blessed this product it wouldn’t matter cuz it carries the AOL brand name. They need to pull a Philip Morris and change their name. Unreal how high priced execs come and go and never realize this.
the same people that say f*ck aol are the people that said f*ck crapple , back in the 90s, but today are sleeping outside the store for iphones… let’s reward attempts at technological improvement no matter where they are… sometimes it takes a baby steps (emac, the first ipod) to shake of the cobwebs (newton, macintosh tv) and get into full stride (the intel mac, the iphone nano, apple tv).
we are technologist not wall street barons, let’s reward technical innovation and ideas and not the ticker symbol it stems from… for example engadget and tmz are great blogs, they don’t necessary suck, just because of who fits their bill.
The product is a good point for AOL to flex it’s innovation abilities. While there’s still a lot to be desired, I’m overall pleased with the direction of this product.
Frank Gruber came by my office and gave me and Scoble a personal demo a few weeks ago. Check it out here:
http://www.web-strategist.com/.....-of-myaol/
It’s sometimes sad to see the ignorance of readers. Forget that AOL released this product and look at the site for its own merit. Mgnet is a new take on personalization that hasn’t been tried before….everyone wants personalized content but no one wants to take time personalizing….so Mgnet tries a visual approach to see if that makes a difference. The rest of the site is taking what’s been done and improving on it. I like and use Netvibes. This may lead me to try something else. I try it not because it is from or not from AOL. I try it because it is new and in some places much different, maybe better than what is out there. After one day it is too soon to tell. So who cares that it came from AOL vs insertstartup.com? Who cares if you think AOL is the internet on training wheels? Who cares if the only thing you can think to post is f*ck AOL….I’d rather you not participate in any open dialogue on the web…because unlike AOL in this case, you add no value. And if you haven’t tried the site referenced in this, or for that matter any post,….don’t add a comment. You again add no value, so keep your ill-informed opinions to yourself. I really don’t care that you haven’t used AOL in 5 years or that Yahoo is the devil…..all you prove is that you have no credibilty on the topic at hand. Enough of dealing with the irrelevant. Nice Job to Frank and his team…and thanks to TC for highlighting something cool from a company that many of us refuse to try again. I agree on the posts about second chances and this seems like a good reason to try some of their stuff again.
Good suite, though I think their bundling a free antivirus based on Kaspersky has been one of their best moves.
Jen, Frank and David - congrats on the update and new features - looks great. I’m really impressed with Mgnet, very intuitive interface - filtering news by visual association is a really nice idea that should appeal to broad set of users.
@keithholloway-uk
That was really a cool one.lolz
The company is going to vanish. My nephew who was born 7 months back might learn in his school about it in his History book
A lot of people have posted “why doesn’t AOL just go away?” How about you tell that to the over 114 million visitors every month to AOL? I guess you all didn’t realize there were that many LOYAL AOL users.
AOL is alive and kicking!
I like the feed reader. I think it is probably the best after google reader. AOL has done it well, to be able to integrate Home page and a separate feed reader (Netvibes’ feed reader opens up the reader on the main page itself). That is sometimes hard to switch back and forth.
I like bookmarks too. Although I have to cleanup some of the junk that comes pre-loaded.
AOL now needs a bookmarking API to be able to integrate itself with likes of Diigo toolbar and others.