Category: AOL

Earlier this week, a Homer Simpson impersonator began instant messaging fans with a link to an "internet-only exclusive Simpsons episode." This -- like many things spawned in the dark corners of 'net -- turned out to be a PC virus. But how did this impostor gain Homer's identity? It turns out Mr. Simpson has a legitimate, real-world e-mail address: chunkylover53@aol.com, which appeared in the ...

One of the most striking things about the first crop of iPhone apps is the divide between those that work with the phone's user interface, and those that either don't take advantage of the phone or ignore the design specs altogether. The AOL Instant Messenger app for iPhone scores points in some UI areas, but could be more intuitive and feel more like an iPhone app in others. We've got no ...

It's been a while since AOL launched an updated version if its instant messenger for Windows Mobile. The new version is still in beta, but it has some nifty features that make it worth checking out. The first thing you'll notice is that the interface is much more attractive. But it's also more useful. When you first login you're greeted with a buddy list. You can double tap on any contact to ...

Facebook has put out their chat service, Google has Google chat. There's no desktop app for Facebook, but there is one for Google chat. Confusing, and annoying. It's also confusing and annoying to have to use those services in separate programs or multiple tabs in a web browser. AIM is probably the most popular IM service known to man and woman, iChat for Mac...these are both desktop experiences. ...

AOL has relaunched AOL Radio, with live streams from 140 CBS-owned radio stations from around the country in addition to hundreds of web-only channels. That includes a handful of talk radio stations and dozens of music stations. But more importantly, the CBS deal could help AOL bring in local advertising deals, which could be a vital component in making AOL Radio profitable. The New York Times ...

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 ...

AOL is getting serious about opening up its popular instant messenger application. A few months ago the company launched the Open AIM initiative, making available the APIs and documentation developers need to add AIM features to third party applications or to develop third party plugins for AIM. Now AOL, which happens to be this blog's parent company, has announced the winners of a $100,000 design ...

Several companies that broadcast internet radio streams, including RealNetworks, Yahoo!, and this blog's parent company, AOL owe ASCAP millions of dollars. That's according to a federal court in New York. While the court did not determine the exact amount of money owed, ASCAP estimates that the fees could climb as high as $100 million. ASCAP stands for the American Society of Composers, ...

This blog's parent company, AOL is continuing to snatch up smaller companies like there's no tomorrow just in case there actually is no tomorrow. The latest acquisition is blog search tool Sphere, which we've covered several times in the past. While Sphere started out as a blog search engine, the company has since become a tool for bloggers and web publishers who want to show related information ...

Yahoo! seems to have come up with the ultimate response to Microsoft's heavy-handed attempts to purchase the internet portal. The Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo! is in talks with Download Squad's parent company AOL over plans to merge the two companies' internet operations. If the deal goes through, the two companies would combine their web and internet based services. AOL's old school ...

MapQuest has finally gotten around to adding a feature that Google Maps has had for over a year: real-time traffic info. When you search for a location or driving directions on MapQuest, all you have to do is click the traffic button in the upper left corner of the screen and all of the major roads will be highlighted with color codes showing the traffic conditions. One thing that MapQuest has ...

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 ...

It's hard to get by with just one chat client these days. Your contacts aren't likely to be limited to a single service, like Google Talk, MSN Live or AIM, so a multi-chat client is a must. Now the multi-chat experience is about to get a lot better for AIM's 27.8 million users, with the launch of AOL's Open AIM 2.0 initiative. Open AIM will aid the developers of clients like Meebo and eBuddy by ...

Does your small business listen to customers' complaints? Do you have a way for customers to get in touch with kudos or complaints? According to Jeff Jarvis, learn how to love the customers who complain by learning how to listen to them. The first way small business should listen now is through online feedback. Most online enthusiasts know the online advocate Jeff Jarvis's Dell Hell story. ...

AOL's Xdrive online storage service allows users to store up to 5GB of data for free. Windows users can also install Xdrive as a virtual hard drive making it easy to upload and download files or perform automated backups. But the the Xdrive desktop software often takes a while to connect and in our tests kind of wreaks havoc on the Windows Explorer process. Today AOL is launching a public beta ...