You may have noticed that we've made some major changes to the home page. And if you haven't, we're in the process of rolling them out to everyone in the coming weeks. So change is coming soon.

We've spent several months working hard to design an experience that makes it easy for you to access the things YOU care about most – right from your AOL.com home page. So, we are opening our site to include features you've told us are important to you -- whether it's access to different email accounts or your favorite Web sites. You're stuff is as important as our (AOL) stuff.

A little over a month ago we introduced Gmail and Yahoo! mail previews to the AOL.com home page. We received a lot of positive feedback from you when we introduced the feature so we knew we were on to something.

Today, we are pleased to introduce more features that, we hope, will save you time and make your online routine a little easier and more relevant. You'll now find access to some of your favorite Social Networks, an RSS Feed Browser that lets you read news from other Web sites, customizable navigation, enhanced Local information featuring real-time news and some fun new themes -- all available right on your AOL.com home page.

We want to thank you for your feedback. It helped us build the site you see today. We'd like to keep the conversation going and continue listening to what you like, don't like and really wish you could have on your homepage. So please leave comments on the blog or send us feedback.

We hope enjoy the new AOL.com home page. And if you want to learn more about the new features, click on the links below. Or, sit back, relax and watch the Page Tour. Enjoy!

My Stuff - your mini-dashboard with mail preview and more

Themes - choose your homepage design

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

RSS Feed Browser - news and updates from other Web sites

PS: We understand that change is not always easy so, if you love the look and feel of the "classic" AOL.com home page, you can choose to go back by clicking the "Back to Classic" link located at the top of the page next to the Theme chooser.

Q: What is this new feature?
A: AOL is now providing the ability to get a preview of other email provider email messages just as you have been able to do for AOL. Right from AOL.com, you can access your email accounts from AOL, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail. You will see the panels expand and provide the step by step process to access your email.

Q: Why would AOL want to give us access to Yahoo and other external email sites? Is this some sort of trick?
A: Not at all. We've been listening to our customers and understand that people often have more than one email address. We want to provide a homepage that is useful in getting you what you need, and access to other email is one feature that is frequently requested.

Q: I used to have other stuff in this area that I liked. How do I get it back?
A: In order to showcase this new feature, we are displaying the Yahoo mail and Gmail Preview Panels to our users as the default. However, if this is feature is of no interest to you, you can change your options by clicking on the small arrow in the upper right corner of the Panel. From there you will see a number of other options that you can choose from. Once you make your choice, your computer will remember it each time you return. And you can always change your choices any time or as often as you would like.

Q: I can get Yahoo and Gmail, but why can't I access my Hotmail the same way?
A: 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

Q: Can I delete messages from the Preview Panel?
A: No, the preview panel only allows for a preview of the message. When you click on it, you will be taken to the actual message on the provider's service where you will be able to reply, forward, or delete just as you normally would.

Q: If I set-up Yahoo or Gmail, does that mean I wont be able to get a preview of my AOL mail any more?
A: No it doesn't. You can set up accounts with all three in three different Panels and will be able to easily get previews of all your emails.

Q: Is AOL capturing and storing my password and login information?
A: No we are not. Any login information is encrypted and is not used for any other purpose than logging you into your email.

Q: Do I have to sign in to AOL to use this feature?
A: No you don't. You can set-up your other emails without having to sign in to AOL.

Q: I don't have an AOL email addresses, can I remove that mail preview?
A: Yes! If you don't have an AOL email address (or Yahoo or Gmail for that matter) you can use the dropdown in the upper corner to find something that is more useful to you. Of course you can always signup for a free AOL email account at http://mail.aol.com, or a new Tunome account (http://www.tunome.com) to get a free personalized email address

Q: I have more than one email address with a certain provider? Can I set up two different panels for each?
A: At this time, you can only check a single AOL, Yahoo, or Gmail account at a time, but were looking into adding the ability to check multiple email accounts. You can always re-sign in with a new username if you want to switch accounts.

Q: I have another non-AOL email that's not Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail. Is there a way I can access that too?
A: You are currently limited to these choices but if there's one you'd really like to see please leave us a comment with your feedback.

Q: I'm getting an error that you are temporarily unable to retrieve my mail. What does this mean?
A: Sometimes there is a technical issue and something breaks that prevents us from getting you the information you are looking for. Your best bet is to wait for a minute or two and then try again. You will have a link at the bottom of the panel link off directly to your mailbox if you get tired of waiting. Of course if you find you are consistently having problems after waiting and trying multiple times, let us know!

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 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!

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!