We realize that AOL.com is not the only web site that you use and that you may, like many of us, have multiple email accounts with different providers. We received a lot of positive feedback from many of you on the AOL Mail Preview and the convenience of that experience. But to make us even more useful, we need to embrace reality that you visit other sites and become more of a launch pad to your other online experiences. With that in mind, we wanted to give you the ability to preview your e-mail from other providers like Gmail and Yahoo! directly on AOL.com. Why shouldn't you be able to preview all your e-mail accounts in one place?! And this is just the beginning - there are even more new features just around the corner that will let you access your news, your social networks and more all right from AOL.com!!
We're really excited about this new feature and we hope you are too. These enhancements to AOL.com are designed to give you options - not force you to change - so if you don't have multiple email addresses or don't think the feature is something you'll use often, no worries. You're not stuck with it. You can very easily change the pre-selected Preview Panel choices (those buttons that may be currently displaying AOL, Yahoo, Gmail and Weather) by clicking on the small triangle in upper right corner of each panel.
There are many, many other options available including eBay, Finance, Health, Movies, Music, and TMZ to name just a few. If you still haven't found what you're looking for, let us know what you would like to see!
Still with us?
Let's move onto how this new mail feature works.
In addition to being able to preview your AOL Mail, there are three email providers we've added to AOL.com: Yahoo!, GMail, and Hotmail. For each mail provider, when you mouse-over the Preview Panel, you'll find step by step instructions to guide you through the set-up process.
Each one is a little bit different so, here's a quick walkthrough.
Yahoo
To add a Yahoo account to your mail preview, simply place your mouse over the Y! icon. The panel will expand and you'll find a button prompting you to sign-in.
Once you click this button, you will go to a Yahoo! sign-in screen where you can enter your current Yahoo! username and password. Yahoo! will display their Terms of Service – essentially confirming that you are who you say you are and that Yahoo! can deliver emails to the AOL.com Yahoo! Preview Panel -- pretty standard stuff. After clicking "I Agree", AOL.com will then display with your new mail displayed in the Yahoo Panel. And you will continue to get your Yahoo! Mail preview on subsequent visits to AOL.com until you log out.
GMail
To add a GMail account to your mail preview, simply mouse-over the GMail icon. The panel will expand and you will see entry fields for username and password to sign-in.
For GMail, once you input your current GMail username and password and click sign-in, you will immediately see all of your unread email. Like with Yahoo, if you choose to "Remember me on this computer", you will get your GMail preview on subsequent visits to AOL.com until you log out.
Hotmail
We'd love to give you access to Hotmail also but unfortunately, Microsoft does not provide us the ability for you to access your account via AOL.com. Because of this, we've kept Hotmail as one of the other options that you can choose rather than preselecting it as one of the default choices on your screen – so if you want to access the Hotmail preview panel, you'll have to swap it out with one of the ones already there by clicking on the arrow in the corner. Keeping that in mind, we've done what we can for our Hotmail users and provided a link to Hotmail. Hopefully that will make it a little easier to access your account from AOL.com. If interested, feel free to send Microsoft some feedback to let them know you'd like to be able to do this on AOL. https://feedback.live.com/default.aspx?mkt=en-us&productkey=wlmail&scrx=1
So there it is -- a quick overview of our new mail feature. By being able to quickly glance at new emails you have for all of your accounts, we're hoping you'll save time by not having to navigate to multiple websites and sign-in over and over, and over again.
If you more questions, you can also check this blog post for some Frequently Asked Questions. If you have a question that we still haven't answered, leave us a comment and we'll be sure to respond.
So, whaddya think? We want to hear from you!
Reader CommentsRSS
milad
Sep 10th 2008, 2:52AM
hi thank for tag
windbandmaestro
Sep 11th 2008, 1:05AM
This is a great feature! A nice thing to do on the part of AOL. It makes even more sense using the AOL portal,
ashish srivastav
Sep 10th 2008, 3:09AM
nice
keiko
Sep 10th 2008, 7:20AM
great idea!
Asif
Sep 10th 2008, 3:57AM
thats cool..amazin wdnt let me in troublr by goin to other pages...
nabilrahim
Sep 10th 2008, 4:00AM
I can only say thank you, you are making life easy for us. It is very kind of you. Would you try to exert some extra effort to enable us to preview our hotmail emails.
Thank you.
Master Bling Dogg
Sep 10th 2008, 4:37AM
try it you might like it
Don
Sep 10th 2008, 4:36AM
Why clutter up the screen with more crap? Have you ever heard of "KISS"? Keep It Simple Stupid!
Maybe you teenyboppers don't have anything better to do, than to let the colors flash in front of your eyes, but for people who are serious users, of the internet, there are just too many changes and too many distractions here. This is no longer the place to be. Send me a phone number so that I can cancel my subscription.
Downtown Doug
Sep 10th 2008, 4:46AM
Tres bien mes amis
Stefano
Sep 10th 2008, 5:49AM
good work,thank you.
Stefano
Sep 10th 2008, 5:14AM
good work,thank you AOL team.
And new features into webmail?
hussainalimusa
Sep 10th 2008, 5:49AM
Really it's most convenient to use all the four e-mails on single web page.Excellent!!Cool!!Amazin!!
albertabck
Sep 10th 2008, 6:06AM
The new idea seems fine-yet I am not able to get into my AOL mail or see a preview-this is not making me happy-to read my mail I have to pull up Firefox and that works-would like this fixed.
As to getting into my Yahoo account here at your site that's fine-however AOL is not and that's not good
geraldjgorski
Sep 10th 2008, 6:27AM
You don't know just how much time Aol, that you have saved me. thank you so much. Jerry G.
sweetybeula
Sep 10th 2008, 6:38AM
Nice
Gaboi025
Sep 10th 2008, 6:52AM
Thats a great feature so when will AIM be able to communicate with Yahoo and MSN ???
Al Johnston
Sep 10th 2008, 7:02AM
LOVE IT
Al Johnston
Sep 10th 2008, 6:53AM
THIS IS GREAT, LOVE IT.
GRAFICoLOGIC
Sep 10th 2008, 6:55AM
this is very nice concept. WOW !!!!!!!!1
but one thing i want to ask that how much mb file can be attached in aolmail account. bcuz i always suffer with this i dont know y.
Loren
Sep 10th 2008, 7:19AM
i don't want yahoo anywhere near me. How do I deleat that oppsion