Happy New Year AOL Mailers.

A new year usually means a list of life-changing resolutions. We all want to lose weight or not drink so much but invariably these good intentions fade quicker than you can say "burger and a beer".

However, there is one good resolution that you can cross off your list right away. It's free, easy to achieve and will have a significant impact on your (online) life. Your no. 1 New Year's resolution for 2012 should be to update your browser.



Your web browser is that application you use to surf the internet – even if nobody seems to use that term anymore. Your specific browser is probably one of the most popular five: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari (if you're a Mac user).

Every couple of years new versions of these applications are released, making them faster and more secure than before. So it's always beneficial to use the latest version. The good news is that just like your current version, the update is free and pretty easy to install.



Exactly what you need to do depends on which browser you use, but you should find an Update option in the About section of the browser's Options, Settings or Help menu. You can also search online for the browser's official website and get the latest version from there, or visit www.browsehappy.com for quick links to these sites.

Once you've selected Update, you'll need to follow the onscreen instructions to install the new version. If you're using a computer at work, you may need password authorization from the IT administrator.



If you're still not convinced that updating your browser is worthwhile, here's another compelling reason. A lot of new websites are no longer designed with older browsers in mind, so they may not be fully compatible with your version. In fact, sites using the latest technology may not be viewable at all.

AOL Mail is currently introducing a refresh of its service that may not be compatible with some of the oldest browsers. Without an update your Mail will still work as normal (no worries there), but you won't get the benefits of our great new look and features. We definitely recommend updating your browser so you can enjoy the full AOL Mail experience.

Don't forget that browser updates also make your internet experience more secure. New versions usually include fixes for security weaknesses that have been targeted by hackers. It's a good idea to set your browser to automatically check for updates, as minor ones are frequently released that deal with security concerns. You can usually find this choice in your browser's Settings or Options.



Let's make 2012 the year you browsed the web faster and safer than ever before by updating your browser today.

Happy New Year,

The AOL Mail team

You've spent an evening of forced fun at the work holiday party, you've spent the day shopping for gifts with what felt like the entire population of your state, and you've spent a torturous couple of hours in the company of scissors, tape and wrapping paper.

Now that the painful prelude is coming to a close, it's time to really relax and enjoy the true meaning of the season. Whether you're celebrating a religious feast or a secular holiday, this time of year is always about cherishing others.



At AOL Mail, we're cherishing all our users and celebrating another great year of helping you communicate with your family, friends and the wide world beyond.

So whatever you're doing, we hope you enjoy the holidays.

If you feel like decorating your inbox with some festive cheer, we've got a range of appropriate themes including the gorgeous handmade Woodcut Ornament theme shown above. For more information about changing your theme, read this blog post.

Happy holidays,

The AOL Mail team

AOL Mail has just announced the Giving Good finalists, which means the gift of local impact is now in your hands. Check out our final 10 non-profits here then vote for your favorite.

AOL Mail users nominated their favorite local non-profits and now ten fantastic organizations from across the country have been shortlisted for a chance to win a $10,000 Giving Good grant and free advertising on AOL.

So head to the Giving Good website and once you've chosen your favorite, sign-in using your AOL, Facebook, or other email account to cast your vote. You have one vote per day until December 31, 2011.

You don't need to be an AOL Mail user to vote, so you can ask absolutely everyone you know to support your chosen cause. Rally support for your favorite over email, Facebook, Twitter, coffee, the supermarket queue, the garden fence... you get the picture.

Giving Good is a partnership between AOL Mail and AOL Impact: where doing good is part of our everyday conversation. For more information about AOL Impact visit impact.aol.com.

View the Giving Good finalists

Happy voting,

The AOL Mail team

Like Louis Pasteur (preventer of disease), Bette Nesmite Graham (inventor of Liquid Paper) and Vanilla Ice ("If there was a problem, yo! I'll solve it"), the AOL Mail team loves solving problems.

If you ever have an issue with your AOL Mail, we want to help. Which is why we've just launched free email support for all our users.

So if your mailbox is malfunctioning, send us an email explaining what's up and we will respond to you within 48 hours.

Simply head to AOL Mail Help and look for the Email us button at the bottom of any help article.

Don't forget that an article on Help may already cover your issue, so it's always worth trying a search first to see if a quick solution is available. Otherwise drop us a line and we'll do our best to help.

Enjoy,

The AOL Mail team

The holidays are coming and AOL Mail is in a giving mood. That's why we've launched Giving Good – your chance to win a $10,000 grant for your favorite local non-profit.



Having a positive local impact is so important to AOL Mail users that we figured we could give you no better holiday gift than the opportunity to make a real difference in your community.

All you have to do is nominate a non-profit organization that means a lot to you. That will put it in the running to win one of three $10,000 Giving Good grants, as well as free advertising on AOL.

The only major requirements are that nominations can only be made by AOL Mail users and must be for U.S.-based non-profits.

The final date for nominations is Dec. 7. Once we've received all your nominations, we'll shortlist 10 Giving Good finalists and launch a public vote to find the three winners.

After you've voted for your favorite, you should encourage your friends to get involved by email, Facebook, Twitter, over coffee, in the supermarket queue, across the garden fence... you get the picture.

So, visit the Giving Good website now to nominate your favorite non-profit and give good this holiday season.

Giving Good is a partnership between AOL Mail and AOL Impact: where doing good is part of our everyday conversation. For more information about AOL Impact, visit impact.aol.com.

Nominate your favorite non-profit for a $10,000 Giving Good grant

Enjoy,

The AOL Mail team

Tomorrow, families across the country will begin the traditional Thanksgiving meal by telling each other what they are thankful for. It's a wonderful tradition that reminds you to always appreciate the good things in life.

At AOL Mail, we're thankful for you – our users. Whether you've been with us since the early days of the internet or just joined in 2011, we're delighted to have you on board.

Last month you should have received our special Thanks for being with AOL Mail since... email. We've got some further tokens of our appreciation planned for the coming months, so keep an eye on your inbox.



Don't forget that you can give your mailbox a holiday makeover by selecting our special Thanksgiving theme, as shown above. For more information about changing your theme, read this blog post.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our AOL Mail users.*

Enjoy,

The AOL Mail team


*Unless you're Canadian, in which case this greeting is six weeks too late.

Anyone who works in email marketing knows that a good subject line is the key to a successful campaign. An email's subject is also important in business where efficient communication is so valuable. Yet, in most personal interactions, the subject line is treated as an afterthought.



When composing emails to friends, many people use quick and generic subjects, like "Hello" or "Tonight". Perpetrators of spam and phishing emails have learned to take advantage of this: have you noticed how many spam messages use "Hello" as the subject?

Spam filters are increasingly suspicious of emails with generic subjects and, more importantly, so are users, especially those aware of the dangers of spoofed emails. If a spammer can send you an email that appears to be from one of your contacts, it's worth being wary of a message from a friend that leads with a vague "Hi".

So instead of creating a subject line that causes the recipient of your message to doubt its authenticity, you could use the subject to assure them that your message is not spam.

The key to a good subject line in personal correspondence is being specific. If you're making plans with friends, use a fact that could not be replicated by a random spammer, such as "Tonight's dinner at Luigi's" or "This weekend's ski trip."



Similarly, if you're sending an invite to a party or event, don't just say: "Party invite" in the subject. Be more specific: e.g. "Jen's 30th birthday party invite".

Not only does this help everyone recognize that your email is a genuine invite and not spam, it also allows them to pick out your message from a crowded inbox. Especially useful for popular people who get invited to more than one party.

A good subject line helps everyone be more inbox efficient. Another useful idea is to change the subject line if the conversation has veered off-topic from the original subject. So if planning your weekend ski trip somehow turns into a debate on the merits of your town's new bike paths – change the subject to the "Great bike paths debate".

If you are emailing someone to ask a quick question, try the common business practice of simply asking your question in the subject line with no additional message. You can even add the acronym EOM (which means "end of message") after your question, so the recipient will know that they don't need to open the email.

Of course, it pays to know whom you're talking to before trying this. Some people may consider it rude and would prefer you take the time for a how-do-you-do before getting down to business.



Paying more attention to the subject of your email can ensure your message is not mistaken for spam, while helping you to communicate more effectively.

Like a good king, you should treat your subjects well and they in turn will be good to you. After all, look what happened to Louis XVI.

Enjoy,

The AOL Mail team

On Wednesday October 29^th 1969, a UCLA graduate student named Charley Kline sent the first ever transmissions over the ARPANET – the research network that evolved into the internet. Ahead of the 42^nd anniversary of that momentous day, the AOL Mail Blog spoke to Charley (who is an AOL Mail user) about the origins of the internet, the role of email and the online future.

AOL: How did the networking project start?

Charley Kline: The Defense Department's ARPANET [Advanced Research Projects Agency Network] was the first packet switch, or data transmission, network. There are all kinds of rumors that it was developed to build a network that would survive nuclear war but that's garbage. The project was partly about researching network technologies but mostly the goal was just to connect all of ARPA's different sites so their people could work together.

How did you get involved?

In the late 60s ARPA was funding about half of all computer science research in the world, mostly at universities. I was a graduate student at UCLA and my professor Len Kleinrock had done his doctoral research on packet switching so being part of the ARPANET project was an opportunity for him to test out his ideas.

The problem was that different computers were incompatible and couldn't talk to one another. A guy named Wes Clark had the idea of building a switch so each computer would only have to work out how to exchange information with this one switch and not all the other computers. This was called an IMP or Information Message Processor – today you would call it a very primitive router.

UCLA received the first switch and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) got the second. Of course we had to build our own hardware to connect the IMP to our computer system. There were no standard interfaces back then, you couldn't just plug it in.

Once we had it connected, I developed software for our operating system to transmit stuff but all I could do was send data back and forth to myself as a test until SRI got their IMP set up.

What happened on October 29^th 1969?

Once the IMPs were working, we decided the simplest idea was to use a terminal on one computer to log in to the system on another computer. The SRI system was a little easier to access than mine so the first test was for me to log in to their computer, which involved me remotely typing the command "LOGIN" into the SRI machine.

So I'm on the phone to SRI and I type the L and say, "OK I typed in L, you got that?" Bill Duvall, the guy at SRI, is watching his monitor and he has the L. I type the O. Got the O. Typed the G. "Wait a minute", Bill says, "my system crashed. I'll call you back".

Bill's computer was smart and would finish known commands. It knew that the letters L-O-G could only stand for "login", so it finished the command and sent the I-N at the same time as the G. However, his system only had a one-character buffer so it had a buffer overflow and crashed.

He fixed that and an hour later it all worked, so I could type commands and use his system remotely. And that was the beginning. That was October 29^th 1969.

Were you aware of how significant this day would become?

I had no sense of how big a step this was. I was a 21-year old graduate student having fun hacking on computers. We all thought it was neat that the packet switch worked but we had no idea it would become a big thing. After all there were only two computers in the world that could do this.

The funniest thing was that about 10 years ago I was watching Hollywood Squares and one of the questions was "What was the first thing sent on the internet?" What I did became a trivia question. I certainly never expected that.

When did you begin to realize the possibilities of networking?

Probably in the 80s when there was much more commercial interest in networks. But even then I didn't foresee the drop in communication costs or the advent of the PC, so I didn't see the mass-market appeal. At UCLA we had a big mainframe – one of only two that had 4MB of memory. It cost $4m and took up an entire room with huge air conditioners. That's what I grew up with so it was hard to imagine affordable and powerful PCs. I did think that people would have dumb terminals from which you could access services like AOL but of course now I have a phone with far more processing power and memory than any of the giant machines I worked with at UCLA.

What helped drive the commercial interest in networks?

Email quickly became the killer app because it was simple, easy to transmit, reliable, robust and cheap.

I've been an email user from way back. I probably have 20 accounts including AOL. I've always had email accounts at the companies I worked for but I liked AOL for the convenience – I could get to it anywhere. Even though I was early on AOL it still wasn't early enough to get the name I wanted. Charley went very quickly.

How could email be improved?

My PhD is in computer and network security so I've always felt that emails should be signed and encrypted. I pushed for that and better authentication, which would help us catch the spammers.

Spam is a big problem. Spam filters are pretty good – they filter most of it but I still have to look at my spam folder to make sure something important didn't end up there.

Encryption wasn't done originally because it took time and computers were slow, but today there is no excuse to not have it.

What is the future of online communication?

I've been talking about online video chatting for years. You had picture phones in the 60s but they were really expensive and pretty much didn't work. Now you have Skype and AV by AOL, but I think the next step is video mail where you can record a message and send it as an email.



In a world of social networking, is email still relevant?

On social networks everybody sees what you post. Unless it becomes more convenient to change this each time you post a message, email will remain useful when you want to talk directly to people.

Official messages like statements from your bank will still come via email especially as improved security and DomainKeys Identified Mail lets you know that it is a genuine message.

Then there are commercial services like daily deals newsletters. People won't want them cluttering up their Facebook page but email lets you filter them into folders until you're ready to read them.

How will you be celebrating the 42^nd anniversary of the first internet transmission?

I'll be at an event at UCLA this Saturday. Len Klinerock is trying to restore the room where we had the IMP and make it part of an Internet History Center.

Did you ever think those computers would become museum pieces?

No, but what better place to celebrate the internet than where we first started using ARPANET and developing the protocols that would evolve into the internet.

Photos courtesy of Charley Kline

For many users, AOL Mail is about signing in, doing what you need to do and then getting on with your life. Therefore simplicity is one of our goals, as seen in the clear design and layout of your mailbox.

But that's not to say AOL Mail is a no-frills approach to communication. If you want features, we've got more frills than an 80's prom queen.



We've shown you a lot of useful features recently on this blog, including sending text messages from your inbox and making pictures part of your mails. Many of AOL Mail's additional options involve accessing your Settings, so we thought an overview of all those menus might be useful.

Your AOL Mail settings can help make your mailbox more efficient and it's worth spending a few minutes exploring your options now to save a lot of time later. To get started, simply click the Settings link at the top right of your mailbox.



Once in Settings, you'll see a list of menu items on the left-hand sidebar. Click any of these to access a different category. There is also a Back to Mail button for when you want to return to your messages.



Whenever you make changes to any of your settings, click the Save button at the bottom of the page to keep them. Use Cancel to undo unwanted alterations.



General

General settings are mostly about how you see things in your mailbox.

You can decide to preview messages in a reading pane or choose to read or write mails in a new window. You can opt to hear a sound when new messages arrive or to see sender names instead of an email address if the sender is one of your Contacts. You can also choose to display and arrange your Contacts by first or last name.

General settings allow you to turn off the Today on AOL page so you go straight to your mail instead of seeing the latest news and your unread messages summary. You can also choose to see Theme suggestions that announce special events or upcoming movies. Check out this blog post for more information on Themes.

If you will be unable to check your messages for any period of time, you can set up a Mail Away Message detailing how long you will be away for, or use a custom message.



You can set an Auto Sign Off on your account for times from 30 minutes to two weeks – useful if you ever sign in on public computers.

Finally, see how to get AOL Mail on your mobile phone, which you can also find here.

Accounts

Accounts settings let you manage your account.

You can change your password, which is something we recommend doing on a regular basis to safeguard your account – especially if you suspect that your account has been compromised.

If you have an email account with another provider and wish to bring all your addresses and messages to AOL Mail, AOL Easy Transfer helps you make the move.



Compose

Compose settings allow you to change how messages you create appear.

You can change the default font, text size and color, as well as the character set – useful if you write in Japanese.

A really handy feature is to enable Autosave of messages you are composing, so if your computer crashes you won't lose all your hard work.

You can decide whether to always see the CC and BCC fields and choose which name people will see when you send them an email, as well as the name that AOL Mail uses to greet you.



Adding a Signature lets you sign off your messages in style – check out this blog post for more details – while you also have the option to perform a spell check before you send your message, automatically add email address to your Contacts and confirm your sent message on a new page.

Finally, you can make AOL Mail the default application for any mailto: links that you click while browsing the web. This feature is not available for Google Chrome users, who will instead find a link to the browser's AOL Mail Extension, which shows you a preview of your inbox no matter where you are on the web.

Spam

Prevent your inbox from becoming jammed with spam by setting your Spam filters. For full details, see our previous blog post.

IMAP and POP

If you want to access your AOL Mail using a program like Outlook or Thunderbird, the IMAP and POP information you need is right here.

Filters and Alerts

Filters are a great way of screening your incoming messages so you can avoid missing a really important message. For more details, see our previous blog post.

Calendar

AOL Calendar users can establish their preferred settings, including: whether your default view is by month, week or day; which time zone you live in; and the hours of your typical day. You can also access your Reminder settings from here.



AIM

If you're an AIM user, whether through AOL Mail, the AIM desktop app or AIM on the web, you can alter your settings here. We will discuss AIM in more detail in a future post, so keep an eye on the blog for that.

Mobile Mail

If you access your AOL Mail via your mobile, you can change the display settings here, including: font size; number of messages and contacts per page; and number of characters per message.

You may also choose to see message management checkboxes for deleting and archiving multiple items.

If you're not currently getting your mail on your phone but would like to start, send us your phone number via this page and we'll text you the link.

Find out more about AOL Mail for mobile



Sync

When you're mobile bring more than just your messages with you by syncing your AOL Mail calendars and contacts to your phone or tablet. For more details, see our previous blog post.

And that's the Settings story. But hopefully the end of this post is just the beginning of a richer AOL Mail experience for you.

Enjoy,

The AOL Mail team

If you spend your day online, you'll probably stay signed-in to your AOL Mail while you're off browsing the web for work or pleasure. You'll always want to know what's happening in your mailbox – ideally without having to return to your open AOL Mail window or tab.

AOL Toolbar is the perfect solution.

If you use Internet Explorer or Firefox as your web browser, you can download a free toolbar that lets you know what's new to your inbox and lots more.

Note that Google Chrome doesn't support toolbars but you can get an AOL Chrome Extension instead – see below for more details.



Once installed AOL Toolbar will sit at the top of your browser, just under the URL bar. To access your latest messages simply click the arrow to the right of the Mail icon.



A drop-down box will appear showing all the unread items in your inbox. To read any of these mails simply click on it and you'll be taken directly to the message.

If you want to create an email, you can quickly access your mailbox by clicking the Compose button on the toolbar. There is also a Compose button in the Mail drop-down menu.



AOL Toolbar is more than just Mail. It also gives you a live weather report and the latest news headlines. Roll your mouse over one of these scrolling headlines to get more details or click the link for the full story.

If you need to really focus on your current task, you can close the news ticker using the blue arrow box on the left. Click the arrows again to reopen.



AOL Toolbar is a great way to instantly search the web. Simply type your search term into the box on the left then click Search for Google-enhanced results.



When you find something worth sharing, AOL Toolbar can make it happen. Just click the Share button on the toolbar to quickly share the page you're viewing by email and text message or with your friends on AIM, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.



You can even add your own items to AOL Toolbar, giving you shortcuts to your favorite sites.

To add a site that you're currently visiting, click the Add button on the toolbar. It will give you a number of options, including Add This Web Page to Toolbar. You can even add your AIM contacts.



When you're getting started, a really great way of populating your AOL Toolbar is to check out the Toolbar Button Gallery. This shows you an extensive list of popular websites so all you have to do is click on your favorites and they will instantly be added to your toolbar.



If you find that your AOL Toolbar is getting full, a neat tip is to show either the button text or icon only. Simply right-click on the button to show the view menu then select Show Icon Only or Show Text Only. You can also remove buttons from your Toolbar here.



As mentioned above, Google Chrome does not support toolbars but there is an AOL Mail Chrome Extension.

Once you download the extension, an AOL Mail button will sit in the top right of your browser. The number tells you how many unread messages are in your inbox.



Clicking on the button will open a new window showing you these messages – select any one to read it. You can also quickly compose a message by hitting the green button.



Get AOL Toolbar or AOL Mail Chrome Extension and always know what's new in your inbox while you browse the web.

For more information on AOL Toolbars, visit toolbar.aol.com. Chrome users should go to addons.aol.com.

Enjoy,

The AOL Mail team