Welcome to the New AOL Homepage Blog!
Posted Jun 10th 2007 10:25PM by Lisa Edwards
We've made some big changes to the AOL.com homepage recently that represent the start of an evolution of the home page design. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing new features and making changes to address the feedback that we've received from you, our users, since we rolled out the beta test of our new home page back in April.
We are also happy to introduce AOL Homepage Blog as a forum to help us keep you updated on what's new and what's coming soon, and to let you tell us what you think. More importantly, unlike a survey or a "feedback form," this blog helps us establish an ongoing conversation with you. You provide us feedback and we look to respond. Having this dialogue with you is a critical element to help us build the best possible products, and we recognize that not having had one until now was a missed opportunity that we are excited to address.
So the obvious question, why are we changing AOL.com now?
The new AOL.com represents the first major change to the home page design since 2005, when we first began transitioning of all of our products from the traditional AOL "walled garden" to the open Web (Basically, when we stopped charging for subscriptions and made our content free to everyone). Admittedly, the current AOL.com design has some flaws. It represents some outdated design standards, features and thinking. We've learned a lot over the last two years and we're putting that knowledge to use to make our product better.
One of the most important things we've learned over the years is that you have choices. You make the choice to visit AOL.com and we need to work hard to keep you here. And we've spent the last year working to design a new version of AOL.com that's faster, easier to use, more relevant and more customizable to make your online experience better. We hope you think the new AOL.com hits the mark. But if you don't, that's OK too. Please let us know by using this blog. Let us know what you like, what you don't like and what you think we're missing. While we may not be able to respond to every request, we will be reading all of your feedback. And hopefully, we will shed some light on our thought process, and why we do the things we do. All we ask is that you keep your comments constructive and focused on the homepage.
So we're just getting started! We hope that you will check in with us often. We'll be here ...
Cheers,
Lisa
AOL.com Product Lead
P.S. I keep using the word "we" because running AOL.com isn't a one-person operation. There's a small team of talented and passionate people who support the home page. And I'll be introducing you to the team (my friends and colleagues) that works behind the scenes in the coming weeks.
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About The Team
My Name is Lisa and I'm the Product Lead for AOL.COM. In short, I lead the team that designs, builds the new versions of AOL.com and make sure that current experience run smoothly. My mission (the team's mission) is to build the best home page for you and everyone that visits AOL.com. This is definitely NOT a one person operation. It takes a village! And I'll be introducing you to the team behind the scenes in the coming weeks.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 37)
1. Your new feature to open and write mail in the same window
is freezing my computer. I am in pain and trying to read
an important email and when this little block comes up my
computer freezes. I chose "no thank you" and it freezes,
three times in a row. AGGRAVATED!!
Posted at 8:23AM on Jun 14th 2007 by HARRIET
2. wHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE EMAIL SYSTEM - IT CONSTANTLY FREEZES UP WHILE TRYING TO LOAD MY MAIL???
Posted at 11:43AM on Jun 14th 2007 by RACHEL
3. Please quit screwing around with the presentation. I am tired of the addition of more and more popups and less and less space to read my email. Now my address book (contacts) won't load from either my home computer or the webmail. I have had AOL for a long time, but the end is drawing near! RLH
Posted at 6:22PM on Jun 14th 2007 by rhilder7399
4. We're sorry that you encountered problems with your e-mail. We actually received a few comments about the same mail issue that you encountered, so I reached out to the Mail team. They released some updates yesterday that had some negative user impacts. They have since resolved the issue. So hopefully you are able to access your mail.
For future reference, here's a link to the Mail Blog (http://journals.aol.com/websuiteblog/productinsider/) for you to post your comments and issues regarding that product. While my team is glad to help point you in the right direction, we unfortunately can resolve problems with the Mail product itself. And we don't want to delay any response to production issues you may be having. Hope this helps!
Lisa
AOL.com Product Manager
Posted at 3:48PM on Jun 15th 2007 by Lisa Edwards
5. my e-mail keeps freezing up, hat is the problem?
Posted at 11:00AM on Jun 16th 2007 by tim
6. why does my e-mail freeze up everytime i use it?
Posted at 11:03AM on Jun 16th 2007 by tim
7. my e-mail freezes up everytime i use it, please advise
Posted at 11:21AM on Jun 16th 2007 by tim
8. I would like the news paneling system to allow users to arrange them by popularity. Maybe news could have a technology tab.
Posted at 3:07PM on Jun 18th 2007 by Lamare
9. Since AOL did its latest AOL Mail update (supposedly an improvement - ha!), my computer freezes when I try to reply to an e-mail or print it. Occasionaly, these functions will work, but more often they don't - it was fine until AOL screwed around with it - we have been with AOL for a long time but this will drive us away if it isn't fixed.
Posted at 8:53AM on Jun 19th 2007 by bdberns
10. We're still seeing a lot of comments regarding Mail issues, so we wanted to provide some additional resources to help you resolve your current problems, get additional information on the new Mail product and provide your feedback on the new Mail product and feature set.
So on behalf of the Mail Team, here are additional resources:
Mail Tech Support Msg. Boards - You can post your problems here and, in many cases, get solutions to common problems. http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=569193&func=3&channel=People
Mail Product Blog,/b> - The place to get information on new Mail features and releases and to share YOUR feedback on product features.
Again, my team does not own the Mail nor can we help troubleshoot your issues. But we do hope that the above resources help.
Best,
Lisa
AOL.com Product Manager
Posted at 12:39PM on Jun 19th 2007 by Lisa Edwards
11. This email system is crap. Half of the time, the WRITE MAIL form does not work. Today, I tried to reply to a family member only to have the email returned because of something faulty at AOL. Hell, I never had these many problems with dial-up!
Posted at 2:54PM on Jun 19th 2007 by DONALD
12. Every time I try to open an email message on my laptop, it tries to load, then I get an error on page message. What's going on. Ever since you changed the design, it even runs A LOT slower on my regular desktop. Not liking itl..
Posted at 10:59PM on Jun 19th 2007 by melissa takami
13. It's unfortunate that the NEW aol is the old Yahoo! As big as a company as AOL Time Warner is, you'd think they were a bit more innovative than simply copying the layout of a competitor.
Posted at 2:56AM on Jun 22nd 2007 by Jerry
14. I really hate having to close the "Latest News" tab that pops up over my email every time I sign into my mail box. Please make that feature go away! I can easily find the news on the AOL Home page, I don't need it in my email box. Besides, most of it is very trivial news- how about some more international news? I hate seeing who won the latest episode of American Idol every time I sign on...
Posted at 3:45PM on Jun 22nd 2007 by CricketREL
15. Everyone,
The AOL Mail Team created a product blog to capture your feedback. My team does not own the Mail experience, so we want to make sure that your feedback and suggestions make it to the folks that can make a difference.
Here's the address of the Mail Product Blog: http://journals.aol.com/websuiteblog/productinsider/
Enjoy!
Lisa
AOL.com Product Manager
Posted at 4:50PM on Jun 22nd 2007 by Lisa Edwards
16. Very nice work Lisa!
This update falls in line with MSN and Yahoo.
Much faster to scroll in Firefox and Camino.
I don't get that "page drag".
Love it!
Posted at 3:55PM on Jun 23rd 2007 by trinette rani
17. what is aol's prob;lem with e-mail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted at 3:43PM on Jun 24th 2007 by tim
18. what is aol's prob;lem with e-mail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted at 3:43PM on Jun 24th 2007 by tim
19. why has the aol company not addressed the major problems with the e-mail system? my e-mail still freezes up every time i use it, this is the 10th comment i have sent and no solution yet, what is aol's problem, do they ant me to jump to another company?
Posted at 3:44PM on Jun 24th 2007 by tim
20. why has aol not addressed the e-mail freeze problem?
Posted at 3:44PM on Jun 24th 2007 by tim