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 It represents some outdated design standards, features and thinking.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.

Reader Comments (Page 37 of 38)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.

New Users

Current Users

Resources

Most Commented Posts

Most Recent Comments

Blogroll

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.

Subscribe

Subscribe to AOL Homepage News & Updates

Feed by Mail:

© 2007 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved

Get the behind-the-scenes perspective on the AOL.com homepage.Learn about new features, and provide feedback and suggestions to the people who make the AOL.com homepage.