AOL Finally Revamps Email
ADOTAS – Somebody over at AOL not only knows mythology, but also has a keen sense of literary analogy. The mythical phoenix lived for a thousand years before immolating itself and giving birth to a new bird from the old one’s ashes. AOL certainly pulled off the burning-itself-to-cinders bit, but reincarnation is a whole other trick and AOL’s progress since splitting from Time Warner hasn’t convinced many that it will rise again.
But the new Project Phoenix email app may turn that around, especially since AOL claims email accounts for 45% of its page views. Grabbing a lift on the Facebook webmail hypewagon, AOL introduced the upgraded system private beta to small group of users while promising a public launch at the beginning of next year. At first glance it looks and operates a lot like Gmail — there’s a simple search feature and you can choose your own domain — but AOL does add some interesting quirks.
The main appeal is a Twitter-esque viewing pane on the right side for previewing attached content as well as maps based on addresses included in emails. A toolbar at the top makes it easy to switch between emails, SMS and instant messages, while the updated system allows you to toggle between multiple emails. Threading is replaced by conversation history, which can be viewed in the preview pane.
AOL also claims the upgraded email app loads twice as fast as the Gmail inbox and you can integrate other email accounts — and eventually messaging from social networks.
Find Gmail ads annoying and intrusive? As of the moment there’s no advertising on AOL’s new mail system — which also means there’s no revenue plan in place. Kinda strange, considering that’s a huge revenue stream (ahem, 45% of page views) the money-hungry AOL would be letting slide.
The upgrade isn’t mind-blowing, but it’s got some decent tools and was a revamp the struggling portal desperately needed. Requests for trying out Phoenix should be placed here, though rumor has it the waiting list is longer than the line outside Chipotle on free burrito day. Other media outlets reported some hiccoughs while using the beta version, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook’s new webmail product upped AOL’s release timetable. Kinks should be expected.
Still, check out this cool animated introduction:
Project Phoenix by AOL Mail from Team AOL on Vimeo.
Also, Len Shneyder, senior product marketing manager for Unica, gives a thoughtful analysis of how email marketers can best take advantage of AOL’s updated email.
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