Dulles, Va. - Needing to tighten its belt, AOL plans to discontinue its AOL Pictures photo service, its BlueString multimedia composition tool and the Xdrive file storage and backup service in December, Ars Technica reported.

New York - Unable to find its niche in the personal media space, AOL (NYSE: TWX) plans to shutter its Bluestring media sharing, Xdrive online storage and AOL Pictures photo services, TechCrunch reported, citing an internal company e-mail. "With two quarters behind us, it is fair to say that results across the AOL products team have been mixed," wrote Kevin Conroy, an executive vice president at AOL, in an e-mail to staff.

Dulles, Va. - A day after announcing plans to relocate its headquarters to New York, AOL on Tuesday announced the launch of BlueString, a free site that lets users upload, manage and share digital media such as photos, videos and music.