What is AOL doing? (or, why AOL should be yet another start page)
Maurice and I were just arguing discussing the rumored AOL decision to open their software up to anyone (with broadband), for free, in an attempt to revive their advertising dollars.
Maurice thinks it's an awesome decision, but that they won't have the balls to do it. He'll write about it later.
I think it's a stupid decision and they won't have the balls to do it. Whether or not they do it, it's a dumb decision. The AOL software is bloated software that is unnecessary today.
AOL is not a great content company anymore. I remember back in the day when companies would advertise their "AOL keyword" rather than their URL. Back then, AOL was great for content.
Now, though, it does a decent job aggregating/creating content, I'm not putting them down too much. But, their real value -- at least within the software -- is creating a tightly integrated and extremely easy to use online experience.
For us geeks, it's hard to imagine that there are lots of people who still find browsing the web impossibly difficult and intimidating. But there are. As developers, the rule of thumb is "make it so easy your grandmother could use it." But face it -- we never develop it that way.
Over the years, though, AOL has done just that. It's still the easiest way for my grandparents to log on to the internet (and, in fact, is the way they log on). It was the place geeks told their grandparents "just use AOL and you'll understand it" when asked about the funny thing called the "internet" which they heard on the news.
Just checking out the Downloads section of www.aol.com, they're at AOL 9.0 for Windows. I think AOL 10.0 should be a web site.
The download for 10.0 should just uninstall 9.0 and then place a shortcut on the desktop to the URL of this new web site. The web site should be YASP (Yet Another Start Page) site similar to Netvibes or PageFlakes or even start.com, making the best of the AOL software experience available on the web. The technology is available for AOL to leverage the web for the below-average user (your grandmother), finally.
The current start pages do a good job, but none of them do a particularly good job with screen real estate. The AOL software, on the other hand, does. I'd like to see them port this simplicity and knowledge into the web. The real users of the Web 2.0 start pages are going to be the below-average to average users, not the uber geeks. It needs to be ultra-simplistic to set up and great use of precious screen real-estate.
Things AOL should include in their start page: Netscape top stories (Jason Calacanis wouldn't let them get away without it, I'm sure), email, content (read: syndication), search, mapping, finance, weather, other widgets.
If anyone has the know-how and the resources to understand below-average users, it's AOL. They need to stay ahead of the curve with this know-how, making it their differentiation factor. If they use AOL-esque simplicity and usability with Apple design to create the new start page for broadband users, they could effectively become the next AOL: the place where every geek tells every non-geek "just make it easy on yourself: go to AOL and everything will be understandable."
Tags: AOL, Netvibes, PageFlakes, Netscape, Microsoft, start.com
Maurice thinks it's an awesome decision, but that they won't have the balls to do it. He'll write about it later.
I think it's a stupid decision and they won't have the balls to do it. Whether or not they do it, it's a dumb decision. The AOL software is bloated software that is unnecessary today.
AOL is not a great content company anymore. I remember back in the day when companies would advertise their "AOL keyword" rather than their URL. Back then, AOL was great for content.
Now, though, it does a decent job aggregating/creating content, I'm not putting them down too much. But, their real value -- at least within the software -- is creating a tightly integrated and extremely easy to use online experience.
For us geeks, it's hard to imagine that there are lots of people who still find browsing the web impossibly difficult and intimidating. But there are. As developers, the rule of thumb is "make it so easy your grandmother could use it." But face it -- we never develop it that way.
Over the years, though, AOL has done just that. It's still the easiest way for my grandparents to log on to the internet (and, in fact, is the way they log on). It was the place geeks told their grandparents "just use AOL and you'll understand it" when asked about the funny thing called the "internet" which they heard on the news.
Just checking out the Downloads section of www.aol.com, they're at AOL 9.0 for Windows. I think AOL 10.0 should be a web site.
The download for 10.0 should just uninstall 9.0 and then place a shortcut on the desktop to the URL of this new web site. The web site should be YASP (Yet Another Start Page) site similar to Netvibes or PageFlakes or even start.com, making the best of the AOL software experience available on the web. The technology is available for AOL to leverage the web for the below-average user (your grandmother), finally.
The current start pages do a good job, but none of them do a particularly good job with screen real estate. The AOL software, on the other hand, does. I'd like to see them port this simplicity and knowledge into the web. The real users of the Web 2.0 start pages are going to be the below-average to average users, not the uber geeks. It needs to be ultra-simplistic to set up and great use of precious screen real-estate.
Things AOL should include in their start page: Netscape top stories (Jason Calacanis wouldn't let them get away without it, I'm sure), email, content (read: syndication), search, mapping, finance, weather, other widgets.
If anyone has the know-how and the resources to understand below-average users, it's AOL. They need to stay ahead of the curve with this know-how, making it their differentiation factor. If they use AOL-esque simplicity and usability with Apple design to create the new start page for broadband users, they could effectively become the next AOL: the place where every geek tells every non-geek "just make it easy on yourself: go to AOL and everything will be understandable."
Tags: AOL, Netvibes, PageFlakes, Netscape, Microsoft, start.com
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