Every major portal or network of sites is looking at ways to incorporate social networking into its own space. That’s one reason Viacom and Disney even considered Friendster. Unlike the others, AOL doesn’t have to buy in or start from scratch: it has AIM. And, to paraphrase, AOL was community when community wasn’t cool. Chats, message boards, people directory — all part of AOL Classic. Until now, AOL has failed to translate that sense of community across its new web portal.
That will start to change this March, as Jon Fine reported Friday, when AOL begins in earnest to roll out new features. (No comment from AOL.) AOL already has expanded AIM’s mission from an instant communication tool built around buddy lists by using it to deliver advertising and market AOL services. Now the Time Warner unit is pushing ahead with the extension of AIM in a way that will intersect with the content side from the user perspective. Look for the new effort to include personal web pages integrated with AIM in a variety of ways. AOL Music will be key; imagine the possibilities if AOL had been able to tap into the community side of Live 8.
While many of the details are hush-hush, AOL’s Jim Bankoff painted some broad strokes here last September when he talked about community and social networking: “the integration of your buddy list, which we think is the ultimate social network, with your portal is something we’ll be able to differentiate on.”
In what is essentially a first for the company, AOL also is encouraging open-source development of web services modules that will fit in with its plans, although it’s not yet clear exactly how this will work. The initial developer’s site — cleverly titled IAMalpha.com — officially went online a few days ago. AOL is already using the “I AM” concept to pitch AIM. From the intro: “Well, we’re in ‘alpha’, which means this is little more than a prototype to give you some idea of what’s coming. We’re looking for folks to play with the underlying ideas, create some modules, see what problems you can uncover and tell us so we can make it better. We want the best modules from across the internet, tapping into web services of all kinds, so users have options and a wide selection of content and services to place on their pages.” A module is defined as “a small piece of content or a small web application made to be embedded on another web page.” It sounds a lot like widgets but I don’t want to jump to conclusions.
Fine frames the initiative as a MySpace challenge — essentially MySpace has become shorthand for “social network” — including the tidbit that the internal nickname for the project is “AIMspace.” He’s not sure AOL can handle the “sort of chaos” that comes with social networking or come close to the “loose vibe” of MySpace. If the idea of AIMspace is to mimic or head-on challenge MySpace, AOL will fail. If, however, AOL plays to its own content and communication strengths to foster community, it stands a much better chance for success.
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