AOL Celebrates First Anniversary With Goowy Media, Inc.

AOL People Networks celebrated the first anniversary of its acquisition of enterprise widget platform Goowy Media, Inc. Founded in 2004, Goowy makes it easy for content owners and third-party developers to build, syndicate and measure user interaction for widgets across social networks such as myAOL, Bebo, and Facebook. Throughout 2008, Goowy drove almost 2 billion widget impressions for AOL, and served more than 3 billion widgets.

Prior to joining AOL People Networks, Goowy created original widgets for myAOL, (http://my.aol.com), and a number of major retailers, and since has allowed third parties within AOL to create widgets including, Daily Horoscope, MapQuest, MP3 of the Day, and PopEater's Pop the Question.

"Over the past year, we've put a lot of focus at Goowy on building the most interactive and innovative widgets on our platform, and developing the tools that content creators and third-party developers need to measure engagement across the social networking community," said Gary Benitt, founder & COO of Goowy Media, Inc. "Joining the AOL family has really accelerated our ability to do this -- we've since grown our team, migrated to the AOL infrastructure and signed on with new partners. We're excited to offer unique monetization opportunities for them."

With its rich analytics, content creators have the power to better understand how their widgets are performing and being used, allowing them to serve their users more relevant content and advertising. Goowy's sophisticated measurement tools include visual representations of where users have clicked within a particular widget, illustrating interactivity as a "click heatmap", and allowing developers to visualize how users engage with their widgets.

Goowy also offers a dynamic ad unit that includes real-time content and provides a rich media experience with greater interactivity than traditional online ads. Since its acquisition by AOL, Goowy has launched widgets as ads on both the AOL Network and third party networks for a range of leading retailers. To increase the viral nature of its widgets, Goowy lets consumers to copy widgets to social networks, blogs, and their desktops, creating both additional exposure and turning consumers into marketers.

AOL Launches BigDownload.com

New Site Targets PC Gaming Audience with Free Downloads, Game Reviews and Industry News

AOL announced the launch of BigDownload.com, http://www.bigdownload.com, a new content- and service-centered site for the PC gaming audience providing free downloads, game reviews and industry news. BigDownload.com is the first joint project between AOL Games, http://www.games.com, and Weblogs, Inc., http://www.weblogsinc.com.

"AOL Games is adding to our network of gaming sites by bringing a one-stop online destination to computer gaming enthusiasts," said John Benyamine, Senior Product Manager, AOL Games and BigDownload.com. "In addition to serving this niche fan base, BigDownload.com provides advertisers an opportunity to reach gaming enthusiasts directly and a chance to create interesting and exclusive campaigns surrounding content.”

"Unlike competing sites, BigDownload.com offers fast and free file downloads with no required sign-up process, subscription fees or lengthy queues," said Barbara Dybwad, Senior Producer, Weblogs, Inc. "Our staff of writers eats, breathes and sleeps PC gaming so they can bring readers a deeper level of analysis. They’re also committed to a diverse range of original and community features, exemplifying BigDownload.com as a participatory media where the "audience" is encouraged to be a part of the site.”

AOL to Include ESPN Content via Syndicated Video Player

ESPN’s First Online Video Syndication Agreement to Deliver Short-Form Sports Programming from ESPN.com to AOL Video and AOL Sports

ESPN and AOL announced that ESPN.com will make its short-form online video content accessible directly through AOL Video (http://video.aol.com), and AOL Sports (http://sports.aol.com/), marking the first time ESPN has syndicated its video content through an Internet portal. ESPN will offer highlights from games and major sporting events as well as video clips from ESPN original programming via an embedded ESPN video player. The ESPN channel page (http://video.aol.com/video-category/espn/112704) launched yesterday on AOL Video.

“ESPN.com video is second to none, and we are excited by the expanded reach afforded us through this syndication agreement," said Matt Murphy, Senior Vice President, Digital Video Distribution at ESPN. "Working with AOL allows us to offer new benefits to fans and advertisers--viewers can now access the programming they want, whether they are on ESPN.com or AOL’s portal, while our advertisers benefit from a larger online video audience than ever before. The potential is tremendous and we hope fans will be seeing more syndicated video from ESPN.com in the future.”

AOL Introduces Xdrive Desktop Lite

AOL today announced the release of Xdrive Desktop Lite (www.xdrive.com), an all-new version of the Xdrive software on Adobe (R) AIR(TM), which was also launched today. The Xdrive Desktop Lite product features an enhanced user interface as well as desktop integration and offers consumers the opportunity to use the Xdrive software on a Mac computer for the first time.

Designed to make it easier to upload and store digital files in one place, Xdrive Desktop Lite reduces the amount of time it takes to upload files by fully integrating the consumer's desktop into the application. Users uploading digital files stored on a local hard drive will be able to see the contents of that drive appear within the Xdrive application, and can easily drag the files from the local drive to the Xdrive service in one simple step. The new software also offers a cleaner, more intuitive user interface, and is both PC and Mac-enabled, offering users the opportunity to easily store up to 5 GB of files from any computer on the Xdrive service for free.

"AOL has long been a leader in the online storage space, and we continue to enhance Xdrive to ensure that we are providing the best solution for consumers to store, manage and share all of their digital files online for free," said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President, AOL.

Weakness found in AOL's instant messenger

It has been discovered that AOL's instant messenger capability may have a security weakness that could allow a hacker to wreak havoc.

The flaw was found by the technology researcher, Boston-based Core Security Technologies, which has stated that it has formally informed AOL of the matter. AIM 6.1 and 6.2 are both affected by the flaw, which AOL claims it has patched but which Core Technologies claims could reoccur. Core Security's chief technology officer Ivan Arce told the Associated Press: "I would say this is critical, this is very serious. It's unclear whether the hole has been exploited."

Mr. Arce was skeptical of AOL claims that it has blocked the hole. He stated: "That filtering mechanism, it doesn't remove the bug from the IM client. It just prevents people from exploiting it. If someone finds a way to bypass the filter, the problem still exists." Earlier this month Skype users were targeted by a worm hidden in instant message invitations.

Yahoo! comes out on top in user satisfaction

A recent user satisfaction survey conducted in the U.S. resulted in Yahoo! beating out its search engine rival Google.

In the University of Michigan's American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), Yahoo! gained three points to end up being rated 79 out of 100. Google on the other hand slipped three points from last year to end up with a score of 78, marking the first time it has slipped below a rating of 80 since 2002.

Larry Freed, chief executive of ForeSee Results, which sponsored the survey, said: "Even more important than Yahoo's first lead over Google is the trend of their scores moving in opposite directions. "Since the ACSI is a leading indicator of financial performance on the macro scale and at the company level, we may see a real turnaround for Yahoo! in the next year." The website with the largest increase in customer satisfaction this year was Ask.com, which garnered a rating of 75. AOL.com was the website that saw the biggest fall in customer satisfaction, sliding more than nine percent to 67.

The ASCI measures the performance of over 200 companies annually.