AOL.com relaunches website, emphasizes video and local stories

By Jeffrey Van Camp November 2, 2010

15 million people visit AOL.com every month, but probably not you. AOL hopes to change its former dial-up homepage image with a revamped website focusing on streaming video and quick, relevant stories for every-day browsers. The new AOL.com is supposed to have something for everyone and every interest. Lists of new features are below.

aol-new-design-website-2010 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

New video features:

“You’ve got” – Remember “You’ve got mail,” that slogan that used to dominate the Internet? AOL isn’t ready to give up on it just yet. “You’ve got” is a video series where the person featured finishes the slogan. For example: President Obama is featured today, saying “You’ve got…a chance to change your community and your country.”
AOL Daybreak – a morning news roundup with Lindsay Campbell
The ONE – a two-minute daily video focusing on a story that has gone viral
The Light Box – a flash player that expands over the page, dimming everything around it (somewhat laggy and cumbersome)

New written features:

The Daily Buzz
Editors Picks
Wow! Deal of the Day – AOL purchased Wow in October.
Cause Marketing
Day-part programming – AOL will post different kinds of stories in the morning, daytime, and evening. Morning programming will focus on pop culture updates and functional news; daytime programming will be full of “snackable” entertainment, fashion trends, and life tips; and evening programming will wrap up the days news and feature daily themed stories like “Tech Wednesdays.”

What do you think? Will the new AOL homepage be enough to help it compete with Yahoo and other entertainment sites? It would be nice to see the site integrate local Patch.com (a local website network it bought) results more prominently. 15 million views is a lot, but not when compared to the 500 million Yahoo gets on its network of websites.

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Web

Jeffrey Van Camp

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…

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