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
wildrod32
Sep 10th 2008, 1:29PM
hello
ramona
Sep 10th 2008, 1:41PM
How do we download it.. Very happy with this
HEYLADY10346
Sep 11th 2008, 1:27PM
SOUNDS GREAT, HAS THIS TAKEN EFFECT YET, BECAUSE I FIND NO PANEL ON MY AOL FOR ANYTHING OTHER THEN MY REGULAR AOL MAIL
mojijan83
Sep 24th 2008, 2:42PM
very cool !!
Carlos FChicago
Sep 10th 2008, 3:34PM
Huh! Is all that I can say.
Nckjhnsn9
Sep 10th 2008, 3:35PM
Very nice AOL! Thanks!
mtharp39
Sep 10th 2008, 4:12PM
Thanks
chrisco
Sep 11th 2008, 8:04AM
We don't want to view other email ON AOL, we want to be about to setup AUTO-FORWARD of our AOL email OUT of AOL. Just let us do that like Google and everybody else. AOL is useless without that. All it does is try to force people to AOL when they don't want to go there. It's in AOL's interest, not customers'.
ulanda
Sep 10th 2008, 4:51PM
It sounds great
stephenolojugba
Sep 10th 2008, 4:48PM
This is a welcome idea, as long as it would not boil down to the limiting/restrictions of personal freedom; until one decides which will evolve as my personal primary email address. also the freedom, the no fee status should be maintained. However, students/working professionals need wider freedom, while rules of open and worldwide participation should be acknowledged as far from campus attitude.
ulanda
Sep 10th 2008, 4:52PM
This is a neat thing. Not stressful at all.
john a ikelly
Sep 10th 2008, 5:10PM
Itsucks!
Edward
Sep 10th 2008, 5:10PM
where is the one for Hotmail???
Edward
Sep 10th 2008, 5:10PM
Where is the tab for Hotmail????
Destiny
Sep 10th 2008, 5:23PM
do it
Sanjay Nayar
Sep 10th 2008, 5:24PM
***For everyone trying to access Hotmail Preview***
Thanks everyone for all the comments. There have been a number of you asking where the Hotmail option is. Hotmail isn’t one of the default options, so you’ll need to select it from the dropdown menu swapping out with one of the ones you have currently. You can see how to do that here:
http://portalblog.aol.com/2008/09/09/replacing-email-previews-with-other-options/
You may notice that you aren’t able to get the same functionality with Hotmail as you get with Yahoo or Gmail. We'd love to give you access to Hotmail as well, but unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't currently provide this preview functionality. But we are working with them closely so if and when they do offer it, we will integrate it. In the meantime, we have provided a button that will link you out to Hotmail to make it easier for you to get there. Feel free to send feedback to Microsoft, letting 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
Sanjay
Sr Product Manager
AOL.com
james e. hazen
Sep 10th 2008, 5:36PM
geting all these aol/emailto commit is a real work out.whats up not being able tokeep urk/password tomuch changing im confussed fix it
Terri
Sep 10th 2008, 5:52PM
33. Thats a great feature so when will AIM be able to communicate with Yahoo and MSN ???
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Omg!!! No Thank You To That Bs.Keep Aim The Way It Is.This Must Be Some Snot Noise Kid.Aol Has Aready Missed Up There New Aim.Iam Happy Just Useing The Aim 5.9/Dont Need All That Junk To Slow My Computer Down
Emmi
Sep 10th 2008, 5:56PM
i have hotmail too but there's not a button 4 it ??
reenie410
Sep 10th 2008, 6:04PM
I love this idea. So will this be the default AOL page or do we need to add these features to our aol homepage?