Notice anything new and improved with your Search bar? To help speed you on your way to finding what you need on the Web, we're pleased to introduce our new auto-complete feature.



Just start typing your query in the Search bar and suggestions will automatically display in a drop down box. Find the term you need and just click it. VOILA!

We're pleased to bring you a new stationery feature that we hope will delight you. You can choose from a wide variety of stationery in our gallery that will allow you to easily add some personality to your emails. To learn more, please check out this video....



It's that simple. Enjoy!

We are working diligently to resolve all the issues you all are experience with the new CompuServe mail system.You can always return here to the login page for the latest updates.

Important Update (June 9, 2009, 4:28pm ET):

We believe we have fixed the majority of issues with the new mail system and have noticed that the system has been stable for the past 12 hours.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience through this migration. If you are experiencing any problems, please call Tech Support at 1-800-848-8990 or email us (websuiteblog@aol.com) to let us know exactly what is happening and provide as much detail as you can. This will help us to resolve your issue.

June 7, 2009, 3:58pm ET):

We will be restarting the servers at 12 am ET (midnight) on 6/8/09 and if you are using webmail or POP3/IMAP at that time, your session will be terminated. Please wait a few minutes and log back into your mailbox (either using webmail or POP3/IMAP access).

June 7, 2009, 11:35am ET:

We have been re-starting the servers periodically this morning, so your session may be interrupted. If this occurs, please wait a few minutes and try to log back into your mailbox (either using webmail or POP3/IMAP access).

June 5, 2009, 4:54pm ET:

We have fixed the issues that were causing slowness in mail delivery. You should notice that there is no delay in mail is being delivered to your mailbox.

June 5, 2009, 10:24am ET:

We are experiencing slowness in mail delivery issues this morning starting at 3:00 am ET. You may notice that mail is taking longer to deliver to your mailbox. We are working diligently to resolve this issue and pologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

June 4, 2009, 5:52pm ET: We have been monitoring the new mail system and it has been stable since early this morning (6am ET). We are still working on several user accounts that have been effected during the migration and will continue to work until all these accounts have been fixed.

June 3, 2009, 10:38pm ET: We have been experiencing some issues with the new mail system and our teams are currently working to resolve them. We have been re-starting the servers periodically, so your session may be interrupted. If this occurs, please wait a few minutes and try to log back into your mailbox (either using webmail or POP3/IMAP access). We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

June 3, 2009, 6:38 PM ET: The temporary maintenance that is affecting some of your mailboxes has been completed.


June 3, 2009, 3:10 PM ET: The temporary maintenance that is affecting some of your mailboxes is taking longer than we expected.We expect to be finished by 5pm ET. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.


June 2, 2009, 12:03 PM ET: The Authentication team has fixed the webmail login issue when the"Stay signed in until I sign out" option was selected. You will no longer receive an error when selecting this option.


June 2, 2009, 10:45 AM ET: The Mail Operations team fixed the issues we have been experiencing with the POP3/IMAP servers.We are also closely monitoring these servers to make sure we don't have any more issues.


June 2, 2009, 4:15 AM ET: The Mail Development team delivered a fix for the latency in email delivery issue that several users have notified us about. This fix was installed immediately.

If you are experiencing any problem, please call Tech Support at 1-800-848-8990 or email us (websuiteblog@aol.com) to let us know exactly what is happening. This is our number 1 priority and are working to fix all known issues.

Rohit Kinra, AOL Mail Team

Important Update (June 9, 2009, 4:28pm ET):

We believe we have fixed the majority of issues with the new mail system and have noticed that the system has been stable for the past 12 hours.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience through this migration. If you are experiencing any problems, please call Tech Support at 1-800-848-8990 or email us (websuiteblog@aol.com) to let us know exactly what is happening and provide as much detail as you can. This will help us to resolve your issue.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As mentioned in earlier communications, the CompuServe Classic service will no longer operate as an Internet Service Provider as of June 30th, 2009. As a result, we have been working on enabling you to retain your CompuServe Classic email address -- by migrating to a new email system. Your email service is available to you at no charge -- but you will need to provide your own Internet access.

Some of the benefits of the new system include:

• Unlimited storage, which lets you keep as many messages as you want
• Ability to receive large messages (up to 16MB per message)
• Industry leading spam and virus protection to help eliminate threats and hassles
• Open accessibility and compatibility with IMAP and POP3
• Seamless integration with AIM for instant messaging

Below are answers to frequently asked questions by users that have gone through the email migration process:

1. How do I login to my CompuServe Classic mailbox?

Once you have completed the migration, you will need to go to http://webmail.compuserve.com and login with your full compuserve email address (e.g. username@compuserve.com) and the password you created during the migration.

NOTE: we have fixed the problem with selecting the "Stay signed in until I sign out" option.


2. Which username should I use to login to my CompuServe Classic mailbox?

If you only have a numeric based User ID (e.g. 77777.7777), you will enter the User ID along with "@compuserve.com" (e.g. 77777.7777@compuserve.com) in the "E-mail or Screen Name" field.

However, if you have a friendly name (in addition to your numeric based User ID), you will need to use your friendly name as the username (i.e. friendlyname@compuserve.com). Your "friendly name" has been made the primary login name and the numeric based Member ID as an alias (which will allow you to continue to receive email sent to this User ID).


3. If I have a friendly name and a numeric based Member ID, which address will mail that I send from my CompuServe Classic mailbox display from?

If you have a friendly name and a numeric-based User ID, all mail that you send from your CompuServe Classic mailbox will display from the friendly name.


4. If I have a friendly name and a numeric based Member ID, will I continue to receive email that is addressed to my numeric based Member ID?

Yes, you will still receive any email that is addressed to your numeric-based User ID, however when you reply to that email, it will be addressed from your friendly name.


5. I just logged into my new CompuServe Classic mailbox and I don't see any of my old email?

We are working on migrating all your old email. It should be available to you within 24 hours of when you initiated your mailbox's migration.


6. Why is my CompuServe Classic account no longer forwarding email to my CompuServe 2000 account?

The new email system does not support the auto-forwarding of email at this time. We are working to support this feature in the future. You will need to login to your CompuServe Classic mailbox (http://webmail.compuserve.com) to read, reply, and send messages -- or access your mailbox via a POP3 or IMAP client.


7. Can I use a third party email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) to send and receive email to my CompuServe Classic mailbox?

Yes, you can use any third-party email client that supports either POP3 or IMAP. Below are the POP3, IMAP, and SMTP settings that you will need to configure into the third-party email client:

pop.csi.com ; port 110 (SSL = port 995)
imap.csi.com ; port 143 (SSL = port 993)

NOTE: The port numbers are entered in a separate field from the POP or IMAP hostname.

When you are setting up your POP3 or IMAP client, you will need to use your complete email address (e.g username@compuserve.com) as your username and use the password you created as part of the migration. You will also need to configure your SMTP, or outbound email connection, to use:

smtp.csi.com ; port 587 (SSL = port 465)

NOTE: This new SMTP server will require you to supply your complete email address (e.g username@compuserve.com) and password to send mail.


8. What is the difference between POP3 and IMAP?

There are two basic ways to set up an email program such as Eudora, Entourage, Thunderbird, or Outlook to check your email. One is to use a POP (POP3: Post Office Protocol) and the other is to use IMAP (IMAP4: Internet Message Access Protocol).

POP3 is a one-way communication path. Your device asks us for data and pulls it from our servers -- but that's it. Things you do on your device have no effect on the server. If you read a message on your phone, then log in to your mailbox, you will see that same message marked as unread.

IMAP is a two-way communication path. Unlike with POP, your devices talk back to our servers and sync your changes automatically with IMAP. When you sign in to your account in a web browser, actions you've taken on your email client or mobile device (like putting a message in a 'work' folder) will also appear in webmail (your message will be in your 'work' folder). This all happens automatically once you set up IMAP, so you don't have to read or sort all your mail twice. This is really helpful when accessing your mailbox from multiple devices.

We recommend that you use IMAP access to ensure that you will always have the same view of your mailbox no matter where you view it -- at home, office, mobile, or anywhere. Below are the advantages to using IMAP:

• messages are stored on the server are accessible from any computer and webmail anywhere in the world
• IMAP mail folders remain synchronized with IMP (webmail)
• sent messages and drafts are also stored on the server
• IMAP mail is backed up on the server and can be restored
• ease of migration from a program to a program and from a computer to another computer/location
• ease of setting up additional computers to check your email, no need to copy anything fro one computer to another

9. Why don't I see the email addresses that are in my CompuServe Classic Client Address Book in this new webmail experience?

The email addresses in your old address book are stored on your local computer, so we have no way to migrate them into the new email system. If you are using either CS3 and CS4 clients, you can find your address book (ADDRBOOK.DAT) in the SUPPORT subdirectory. Make a copy of this file and save it in another location (such as your Desktop). Once you have completed this step, you will need to download a free utility that converts a .DAT file into a .CSV file. There are many of these tools available -- just go to AOL Search and search for "DAT to CSV".

Once you have converted your address book from a .DAT to a .CSV file, you can import the addresses into your new CompuServe Classic mailbox. You will need to login using CompuServe Classic webmail (http://webmail.compuserve.com) and use the instructions on how to import these addresses at our Help Portal.


10. Why can't I set mail filters in webmail?

Our development team is working on making this feature available. We anticipate that this feature will be available in mid July 2009.


We hope you enjoy your new webmail experience.

Rohit Kinra, AOL Mail Team

You can now access your AOL Calendar on iPhone and Android.

You can view your calendar event list:




Select an event in your list to view its details:

You can create and update events:




In the settings page you can set the number of days to display, time zone and which calendars to display.

iPhone users have enjoyed the sleek new experience of AOL Mail for some time. Now the same kind of optimized experience is available on the Android as well.



If you have a T-Mobile G1, check it out at http://webmail.aol.com. And be sure to check out the new features also!

In an effort to more effectively reach out to all of you, we decided to leverage a tool much spoken about recently: Twitter.

If you are familiar with it just follow us at http://www.twitter.com/aolmail - if you don't know what it is, you might want to check out http://www.twitter.com directly. Even if you don't have an account you can always check out http://www.twitter.com/aolmail using your browser for what we have to say.



We will use twitter frequently to talk about new features, thoughts, issues or ask questions.

Let us know what you think or how you would prefer to stay in touch with us.

Marcel Becker, AOL Mail Team

Today, we're pleased to introduce the latest addition to the AOL Webmail plug-in gallery: Truveo Video Search. This new plug-in lets you use the Web's most comprehensive video search engine to search through over 320 million videos. With Truveo, the vast universe of online videos – from viral videos on YouTube to news and TV clips from the world's leading news and entertainment resources -- are all available in one place and at your finger tips.

What better environment than Webmail to search, discover and then share your favorite videos with your friends. Spread the wealth and email your favorite links!

How do you add Truveo to your sidebar? Very simple: Click on the "+" button at the top of the sidebar. You will see various tabs for different categories of plug-ins. Truveo is conveniently located in the default Featured category. Simply click "Add it" and you are done.



The Truveo plug-in will display a number of videos by default, using the standard Truveo video ranking algorithm. Type some keywords in the search bar, and start watching your favorite music, news, sports or any other videos. All right there within your mailbox.



This plug-in was developed by the Truveo team using Truveo's standard open API. The Truveo API, is available for free and can be integrated on any websites. More information at: http://developer.truveo.com.

We hope you enjoy the new Truveo plug-in. Let us know what you think!

Written by Arnaud Mauvais, Vice President, Truveo

Over the past few weeks, we've been showcasing here some of the upcoming new features in AOL Webmail. Many of you have not only already tried them in the Beta, but have also provided some great feedback. Thanks and keep it coming!

Well, the Webmail team has been working hard these past couple weeks, making little tweaks and putting on the final touches. We're proud to let you know that those features as now available on webmail.aol.com!

Just to recap, here's a list of what's new in AOL Webmail:

• Themes, themes, themes - choose from over 40 of them!
• Plug-ins that let you get weather, stock, finance news, horoscopes, etc. right in your Inbox
• Gmail^TM in AOL - preview your Gmail Inbox by adding the Gmail Plug-in
• iCal support - create your own or subscribe to your favorites

Now I'm gonna turn it over to David to walk you through how to make the most of all the plug-ins.

Thanks, Rose....

Using the plug-ins and the gallery is supremely easy. But in the spirit of "show don't tell" we made a couple of short videos that can also get you up to speed.

First up is a video that shows you how to add plug-ins from the gallery to your sidebar.



Once you've been using plug-ins for a while you may find that you like some more than others. This video shows you how to remove plug-ins and reorder them in your toolbar.



We hope you enjoy the new AOL Webmail. Let us know what you think!

A collaborative article by Rose Jen, Product Manager and David Louie, Senior UI Designer
AOL Websuite Products

Happy New Year!

Last year – errr, week - we blogged about our new favorite themes. (I've been using the Football theme myself. It just puts me in the right mood for the college bowl games. If you haven't already, try it out and pick your personal favorite!) This week, we want to you let know about other new features we added to the latest beta release of webmail.

Plug-ins

If you're an avid webmail user, you've probably already used the AIM® plug-in to chat with your friends. In this release, we've added even more content which you can get without ever leaving your inbox. You may have also noticed that we've added a gallery and a sidebar to help you manage all the plug-ins.

To browse the gallery, click on the + button at the top of the sidebar. You'll see tabs for different categories of plug-ins. We now offer a wide range of plug-ins, from TMZ to weather, latest news headlines to daily horoscopes, handy sticky notes for all your "scribbles" and shortcut to Mapquest®, etc. Take a look under the tabs and click "Add It" for any plug-in you want to add.



For me, I can't live without AIM. I also like to keep on eye on my Yahoo!® and Gmail_TM accounts and the latest celebrity gossip. The plug-ins I selected are added to the sidebar and marked as such. After you add all the plug-ins you want under each tab, you can even reorder the icons in the sidebar by drag and drop.

Gmail Plug-in

I mentioned that I like to monitor my Gmail account while I'm in AOL webmail. To do this, simply add the Gmail plug-in via the gallery. Once the Gmail plug-in is selected, you'll be prompted to login as you normally would to the Gmail account. You'll get a preview of your Gmail inbox, right inside your AOL inbox. Talk about convenience!



We've been working hard to make your webmail experience personalizable (sic), whether it is picking a seasonal theme or adding a useful plug-in like real-time stock quotes. Take a look at the new beta, customize your experience and, as always, let us know what you think! We'd love to hear about your favorite plug-ins or suggestions for future plug-ins.

Enjoy!

Written by Rose Jen, Product Manager

Every once in awhile I like to spice things up with a little change. Like rearranging my sock drawer or switching the art on my walls. So why shouldn't the same rule apply to your inbox? Well, now it can. In the latest beta release of webmail, you can adorn your inbox with over 45 themes. Here's a video showing you how:

These themes are some of my personal favorites:

Aloha is perfect for getting serious about that exotic tropical vacation I''ve been pondering for the past five years (but can't ever seem to find the money for).



When it's really cold outside, I pour myself a cup of hot coffee, put on my fuzzy slippers and select Cozy Cozy while I read my mail.



Galaxy is always good when I've got that NASA feeling.



And when I'm feeling nostalgic for the house I grew up in, I pick the Paneling theme and reminisce about memories of my parent's rumpus room in the late seventies.



You'll probably be glad to know that we've taken extra special care to make sure our themes are designed to be fun BUT aren't so distracting that they get in the way of reading your mail - this has always been a pet peeve of ours with themes on other products out there.

So take 'em for a spin. And drop us a line with your favorite ones - we'd love to hear about YOUR favorite themes. Or if you've got a good idea for a new one, send it our way. We'll be busy making more for upcoming releases.

- Penned by Bill Wetherell, Director of UI Design

Our New Plug-in Gallery Offers One-Click Access to Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Other Sites
New Skins Offer a More Personalized Experience

We are pleased to announce today's launch of an updated beta version of Web Mail, beta.webmail.aol.com, which now offers users one-click access to their Gmail and Yahoo! Mail accounts and other popular sites, customization capabilities and over-the-air mobile sync of Calendar and Address Book.

Plug-in to a New Mail Experience

Web Mail's new plug-in gallery offers more than 30 plug-ins and gadgets, including four plug-ins showcasing use of Google's open standard for container development. Users can place an unlimited number of plug-ins on a customizable toolbar on the right-hand side of the page, providing easy access to AIM, popular websites, third-party e-mail accounts, stock updates, weather and much, much more.

A new set of APIs will also be made available to third party developers and advertisers interested in creating special themes and plug-ins for the site. For now, third-party developers can sign-up on http://dev.aol.com/mail for more information on creating plug-ins.

Skins-tastic!

Users can choose from more than 45 new "skins" or themes to personalize the Web Mail page.








Stay in Sync with Yourself

This newest version of Web Mail also includes over-the-air mobile sync of Calendar and Address Book, allowing users to make real-time updates to both applications from a variety of wireless devices including the BlackBerry and iPhone. In addition, this version of the product includes true iCal support, giving users the opportunity to create a calendar or subscribe to an existing one from a third-party provider.

We are planning to make the product available for general release in January. In the meantime, leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

New AOL Sync Feature Allows Real-Time Mobile Updates to AOL Calendar and Address Book
By Mike Chowla, Principal Product Manager, AOL Mail

AOL introduced the new AOL Sync for beta testing at http://aolsync.aol.com. The new features let users sync their AOL Calendar and Address Book with a wide range of mobile devices including the iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, and many phones from Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. AOL Sync supports "Over the Air" synchronization so users can make real-time updates to their calendar and list of contacts over the cell network. In addition, AOL Sync also supports synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook.

To bring users the Sync feature that makes calendar and address book access a portable and 100% mobile experience, AOL partnered with Funambol, the open source provider of push email and mobile sync for the mass market. Funambol's open source approach to making push e-mail and mobile data available on any device means AOL users can now access their personal information anywhere, anytime.

To get started with the new AOL Sync, check out the demo below.

Users who sign up to use the feature during the beta test will automatically transition to the final product when it is introduced in a few weeks.

To set up AOL Sync
1) Go to http://aolsync.aol.com/
2) Click "Register your phone"
3) Enter your mobile number, mobile carrier and device manufacturer and click "Send Code"
4) When the verification code arrives on your mobile phone, enter it and click "Verify"
5) Select your phone model and click "Continue"
6) To sync additional calendars or auto added contacts, check them; Click "Configure Now"
7) For iPhone*, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices, the next step is to download a sync client; For other devices, you'll receive instructions on how to configure your phone's built-in sync client

*iPhone users must download the app from Apple's App Store.

iGoogle users with an AOL, AIM or tunome.com identity can use the new gadget to access their mail. Users in the United States who are already using the existing AOL Mail gadget to preview mail on the iGoogle homepage should click here to add the new gadget and also remove the old gadget from their homepage.

Recently, we have gotten several concerned calls from AOL users who are receiving emails from themselves that they didn't send. Most of the time, the content is inappropriate and users are troubled that their email address is connected to this content, and even more concerned that this is a sure sign their AOL account has been hacked and is being used by someone else.

Although it is possible that the account has been compromised, it's more likely that these users are being "spoofed." In other words, the email is most likely coming from a source outside of AOL that is "spoofing" the From address. Automated bots are often used by spammers to fill in the From: address with the To: address, making it look like the person has sent mail to themselves.

Why aren't the AOL spam filters catching these spoofs?

AOL actually catches most spoof emails before they reach the intended recipients. In fact, we block more than 2 billion pieces of spam each day before it even reaches our users. We continually modify our spam filters in response to new spam trends and threats, based on user feedback via the "Report Spam" feature.

What should I do with the spoof emails I am receiving? Should I send them to AOL?

When you receive any piece of mail that you consider to be spam, you should immediately hit the "Report Spam" button. This helps to ensure that future mail from this source will go to your spam folder in the future. Rest assured that by hitting the "Report Spam" button you are not blocking or reporting yourself; but, helping us identify the source of the spoof email.

What if I still suspect unauthorized use of my account?

If you suspect unauthorized use of your account, immediately check your Sent folder for any emails that were sent without your consent. If you see any unexpected messages, immediately change your password. This will lockout the unauthorized user and re-secure your account.

How do you tell the difference between a spoof and a compromised account?

Differentiating between the two can be difficult, but your best bet is to be vigilant about protecting your account, your computer and your privacy. Follow these tips:

**Use a secure password and change it frequently. AOL recommends that you immediately change your password if you suspect any unauthorized usage of your screen name. Only authorized users can change passwords. If you have stored the password on your computer, remember to update that, too.

**Make sure you are running up-to-date virus and spyware protection software.

For more information on spoofing, we also recommend that you take a look at this article: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Email-Spoofing.html.

Happy Halloween Gmail! We knew you would have the best costume at the party, and who can blame you? We think it's great that you're using this holiday to pay homage to the one who started it all, who got 35 million people online at once, gave them all email, great content and messaging capabilities, and even created a forum that encouraged them to speak in emoticons.

That costume is fabulous...clearly, the devil is in the details... and what's that you've got there? An "experimental" instant-messaging feature built right into your mail service so people can use it to send text messages to their contacts' phones? We love it – that was such a hit when we first introduced it so many years ago. We tried to make it easy: telling users to simply open the AIM panel in their email type "+1 and the 10-digit cell phone number" into the To: Screen Name box. It's kind of fun, too – good choice!

And those sidebar options – talk about getting it right... Adding gadgets to email that allow people to manage their calendars, access their favorite content and best Websites? Nice work. The idea of adding a side panel like that was one of our best. Giving people the ability to get to their favorite places on the Web, manage their schedules and IM right from their email home page tripled the convenience of our service. We're sure you'll get lots of compliments.

Finally, is that an "attachment warning" popping up on your back? Nice touch. We know nothing is more embarrassing than having to send an email twice because you forgot the attachment. Our users love this little reminder, and they have been praising it since we first implemented it back in 2007.

They say imitation is the best form of flattery, so Gmail, we thank you and we are indeed very flattered. Putting together a costume that is so dead-on could not have been easy, and you've got it down pat. Trying to convince all the other kids at the party that the only thing to use is Gmail and putting out a press release every time you add a new button to the service is just so 1998. We're telling you – this outfit brings back memories!

Here's a tip though... the Web's getting more personal, and people are really savvy at customizing their own services. When you don this same costume next year, make sure you check out www.tunome.com first and add some third party services (see our new Yahoo! plug-in) – you can't be all Gmail all the time any more – it won't be such a big hit next year!

Happy Halloween!