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
tnuckel
Sep 10th 2008, 6:09PM
that's cool
Iad Najjar
Sep 10th 2008, 6:21PM
it is one of kind AOL.keep up the good work.
maureenh1159
Sep 10th 2008, 6:25PM
it stinks! I cannot even get to my AOL mail - this is an improvement????
fustrated as hell
Sep 10th 2008, 6:28PM
It sucks! I can't even get to my AOL mail now! Doesn't seem this was quite ready for public release...
music44time
Sep 10th 2008, 6:40PM
I'd like the option of which accounts pop up on my home page. It's frustrating to have no choice and no ability to hide any of them.
Zina
Sep 10th 2008, 6:46PM
That's awesome! I have an account with all 3 providers. Thanks for the wondeful change.
darlinjill
Sep 10th 2008, 7:45PM
my family has aol and i would like to talk to them
hoppy
Sep 10th 2008, 7:28PM
nocommentsatthistime
THOMCAT
Sep 10th 2008, 7:51PM
I LOVE THE NEW FEATURE... I WAS ABLE TO DELETE THREE ICONS FROM MY DESKTOP... THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD MAKE IT BETTER, IS TO ADD FOUR MORE BUTTONS... IE TWO ROWS OF FOUR.
vgbpapo032
Sep 10th 2008, 8:23PM
Excelente idea!!!!!!
anreynol71
Sep 10th 2008, 8:53PM
what a time saver! :-)
Typriece Hanner
Sep 10th 2008, 8:56PM
This is great!
Javier Aguilar
Sep 11th 2008, 3:29PM
That will be just great!!!
stephensturm1987
Sep 10th 2008, 9:36PM
I think that this is a great start in the right direction for American Online. However, the only thing I see that could be done to improve upon this new feature is if AOL were to add this as an option under Mail settings to check your Yahoo, hotmail, or G-mail accounts using tabs. Because, I know that like me, many people are not going to go back to the homepage just to check their other E-mail accounts that they have with other providers. And that they would much rather have the option of just signing into their E-mail and being able to read ALL of their E-mail regardless of the provider without having to open 5 browser windows, 5 tabs, or 5 different programs just to do one thing.
Also, I have thought about checking my Yahoo account on here and only having to sign in to AOL. But, I no longer use my Yahoo account due to the ammount of spam I got in that account.
FaisalNahian
Sep 10th 2008, 9:47PM
An Awesome idea indeed!!!!!!!!!
Want to see it soon!!!
Thanks to American Online for providing us some great features than any other provider!!!!!
GUMBIE1960
Sep 12th 2008, 2:56AM
YES I THINK IT IS A GREAT IDEA, SAVES A LOT OF TIME AND THIS WAY I WON'T HAVE TO LET THE EMAILS REALLY PILE UP, LOL. MAKES A LOT MORE SENSE. THANK'S
offatsix18y
Sep 10th 2008, 9:53PM
This is A totally tubular idea
dafusel
Sep 10th 2008, 9:54PM
perfect because it is a pain to have to go to site after site to get mail if u can get msn in there to at least the major email accounts and a link or add on for your college to i dont ever comment but im a aol user i love aol always makeing internet easier 4 me
joie
Sep 10th 2008, 10:07PM
i will get a yahoo and maybe a gmail acct now
i like the possibilities now
Xyu
Sep 10th 2008, 10:04PM
Wow!
Its amazing how many people are actually buying this...unless of course you don't care that not only your login information but also all your emails from these services will be stored or at least "processed" on AOL servers, go ahead, enjoy.