Ever since we had to regrettably disable one of our favorite features back in January 2009 (due to the shut down of "AOL Pictures") the entire AOL Mail team has been on a mission to bring it back for users. We knew not having this feature was a deal breaker. After experimenting with various options on our beta site, we can now finally say "It's back." We hope you'll like it better then what we had before.

Now you can truly integrate pictures right into the mail you are composing. No need to upload an image to a picture site first. Simply click on "Insert Pictures", select "My Computer", navigate to the picture you want to send – and done. It will be inserted right into the mail you are composing, ready to be resized and placed just the way you want it to appear in your mail.



You can insert as many pictures as you want. Although keep in mind that the file size of the picture counts towards the total size of a mail you can send, which is currently around 16MB. Btw, we're working to increase the allowable size of a mail so soon you'll be able to send even more. More on that later.....

The feature is currently only available on our beta site: http://beta.webmail.aol.com as we want to test it a bit more to ensure it really works the way we want. Please remember that your feedback plays a crucial role so let us know how you like it or if anything is missing.

Marcel Becker
AOL Mail Team

We've just released an update to AOL Mail which includes many highly requested features from you, our users. Some of you have already been test driving them in Beta – thank you for the positive feedback! All of these new features are now available at http://webmail.aol.com.

A quick highlight of what you'll see in your Inbox include: rich text signature, default fonts & colors, new themes, randomize theme, custom away message and exporting address book. See more details in this recap.

Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Rose Jen, Product Manager, AOL Mail

We're not satisfied until you're satisfied. In response to your feedback we're pleased to introduce some new features in AOL Webmail, and you can be the first to try them out! Experience them at http://beta.webmail.aol.com and as always, let us know what you think.

Create a Rich Text Signature & Set Your Default Font
Many of you have tried our stationery feature already. Here are other ways you can make your messages even more you! Below, you can see that I've designed my custom rich text signature, and added 1 of my favorite funny quotes...pun intended. I've also updated my font color to plum, just in time for the fall season. It should go perfectly with my Fall skin . If you like what you see, you can personalize both of these in Settings.


More and More Themes
Speaking of themes, I love the themes we have in our gallery and we've added even more to our selection! For example, there's a Football theme perfect for the football season; a Halloween theme for 1 of my favorite holidays just around the corner; and even a Doggy theme for the dog lover in all of us. But if you're like me and can't decide on just one, there's good news! Leave it up to chance and select "Use Random Theme." Every day is a new surprise.


Put up a Custom Away Message
For those of us lucky enough to have a planned vacation, we have the perfect solution to help you make everyone else jealous. You can now create your own custom response letting your friends know you're "busy" with life. For the rest of us, I guess we can keep dreaming.


Address Book Export
Many of us can't live without our address books, so why not keep it safe? They say "back up and back up often." You can now do the same with your address book. Simply go to Contacts to find the Export button, then choose from the 3 format options to get a backup copy of your address book.


Those are just a few highlights of what's over in Beta – discover more now .

Enjoy!
Rose Jen, Product Manager, AOL Mail Team

Take advantage of this exclusive AOL offer and you'll save $100's over your current mobile plan when you switch to Peek.

Keep on top of your email and in touch with your friends and family. Peek brings your AOL mail right into the palm of your hand.

With Peek you get super affordable, nationwide, unlimited email and text messaging for as little as $14.99 per month. No contracts, no hassles.


*Average annual savings versus major carriers' standard published rates as of 7/24/09.

Take your mailbox with you wherever you go. It's never been more affordable.

To learn more click here.

It's never been easier to quickly see last night's funniest and hottest TV clips. Just add the new TV's Top 5 plug-in and get last nights best moments straight to your inbox.

That's right. It's all right there. Mail. Laughs. Life.

Here's how....



So now you know. Never miss last night's top TV moments again. Enjoy!

Faithfully,

The AOL Mail Team

Life moves fast. But you know that. However, did you know that with AOL Sync you can take your AOL Address Book and Calendar to go by syncing them with your mobile device? With AOL Sync changes you make to your Address Book or Calendar will automatically be updated on your device and vice versa.

AOL Sync supports many of the most popular phones including the iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile phones, as well as many Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia models not to mention many others.

However, technology also moves fast. As such, on 8/18 we launched a new version of AOL Sync that expands support to over 72 new phones bringing our total number of phones supported to over 1200. The new phones include the Blackberry Pearl Flip (8220 & 8230), Curve Javelin (8900) and Blackberry Storm (9500, 9530).



In addition to increasing the number of devices supported, this new version fixes several issues including:

• Webmail not properly displaying Address Book entries for companies where there's no first or last name
• No option to bypass mobile number confirmation step if confirmation code is not received
• Recover option from Outlook Plug-in could fail because Notes and Tasks were checked by default
• Calendars shared from Webmail could not be synced
• Street addresses sometimes did not sync
• Errors when downloading the Windows Mobile Plug-in
• Duplicate Address Book entires if two accounts were synced from one client
• Screen name changes in Outlook not getting synced

Want to learn more? Then check out http://aolsync.aol.com/

Thanks for tuning in. Now go get synced!

Faithfully yours,

The Mail Team

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