AOL to Open Portal to Outside Email, Content

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 10, 2008 - 8:22am.

Dulles, Va. - Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL for the first time plans to open its AOL.com portal to outside content, allowing users to access email accounts from other providers and check their social networking pages directly from the site. The company said that it plans to launch several new features over the coming weeks that give users more control over the site's displayed content and services, starting on Wednesday with access to third-party email accounts from Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.

"This is an important first step in opening up AOL.com and giving users the ability to populate the AOL.com homepage with content and services they use on a daily basis, regardless of where it lives," said Bill Wilson, AOL's executive vice president of programming.

"For a portal to be relevant to consumers today, it has to recognize that users seek a variety of different experiences and connections with their various networks and information sources."

Other additions to AOL.com will include a "keyhole" view that will allow users to manage all their social networking feeds from one location, a customizable RSS feed reader and the ability to add a link to any web page directly to the site's main navigation bar.