Just like e-mail, we know that many of you use and enjoy social networks to stay connected with friends and family members. We are introducing a feature called "My Networks" that lets you see your updates from multiple social networks all in one place. And we're giving you an easy way to send a status update out to your profiles with just one click.

You can log in and access your profile updates from AIM, MySpace and Facebook. Bebo and Twitter and other networks are coming soon.

And, if you're asking yourself "What's a social network?", they are sites that provide a fun and easy way to stay connected. Try setting up an account with one of them and see how many of the people you know already belong to a social network. We bet you'll be surprised!

Until now, your AOL.com home page only presented you with news headlines and articles from AOL sources. However, we know that most of you don't get all of your news and information from a single source. You visit a variety of Web sites as part of your online routine which takes away valuable time from your day. We're pleased to introduce the RSS Feed Browser, a new feature that saves you time by delivering top stories and updates from the Web sites you visit most, right to your AOL.com home page.


RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and provides an easy way to surface information (e.g. feeds) from your favorite sources directly to your home page. We've even started you off with a set of pre-populated categories and feeds to some of the more popular sites around the Web including The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sportsline, TMZ, People and Engadget to name a few. We wanted you to immediately see the benefit and value of having the RSS Feed Browser on your home page.


Customizing Your RSS Feed Browser
Don't like the pre-populated categories and feed options? No worries, you can add your own set at any time. Let's say you're interested in planning a fun getaway and want to start looking for ideas. You can create a category called "Vacation Ideas" and start collecting deals and information right on your AOL.com home page.

To create a feed category, just click on the "Add" button in the upper-right corner of the Category pane and type in the category name (Vacation Ideas).


Click on the "Add Category" button and you should see it appear at the top of your "Category" list.


Next, add feeds to the sites you want to appear in your "Vacation Ideas" category. Adding a feed is just like adding a category. Click the "Add" button in the upper-right corner of the Feed pane and type in the site address (URL) or feed URL (if you know it) that you want to add – "Travel and Leisure" in this case. We'll search for any available feeds from the Web site you've entered and present you with the options to choose from. To select a feed, just check the box in front of the option(s) you want and click "Add Feed". That's it.


The "Travel and Leisure" article feed will now be delivered to your RSS Feed Browser every time you visit your AOL.com home page. This is a "rinse and repeat" process, so you can add as many categories and feeds as you like.


You can also edit categories and feeds at any time. Just roll over the category or feed you want to update to expose the pen or "edit" icon. Click on the pen to display the Edit screen where you update category or feed information as desired. You can even "Delete" options from your RSS Feed Browser.



Also, you'll find "Related Articles" at the bottom of each feed. Sphere scours the Web and delivers content (not ads) related to the topics of the feeds displayed in your RSS Feed Browser. So you get even more content from across the Web delivered right to you on your home page.



How We Store Your RSS Feed Browser Choices
When you make changes to your page, like adding feeds to your RSS Browser, we store those choices in a secure "cookie" on the computer that you are using. A cookie is, basically, a file that stores information you enter on a Web page, to save you time later. We use cookies on the AOL.com home page so that you don't have to Sign In or be required to have an AOL screen name to use and save your personalization options. However, deleting your browser cookies or private data will wipe out any changes you've made to your home page. Click here to learn how to protect your personalization choices.


That pretty much covers the basic functionality of the RSS Feed Browser. We hope that you spend some time getting acquainted with the feature. Again, we believe it's a great tool that will make your online routine more efficient and save you time. Let us know what you think.

Learn more about the other new features:

My Stuff - your mini-dashboard with mail preview and more
Mail Preview - preview your mail from Yahoo!, Gmail and AOL
My Networks - your social networks in one place
My Links – customizable navigation
My Local – weather, real-time news and more
Themes - choose your homepage design