AOL
AOL Announces Open AIM Dev Contest Winners
AOL's Open AIM is an often over-looked social networking platform, mainly because instant messaging isn't thought of these days as a form of social networking. Perhaps, on its own, IM isn't social networking, but clearly it is an important feature -- both Facebook and MySpace have it, and AOL is planning to integrate its 80 million-strong AIM network into bebo as soon as possible. This week AOL announced the winners of its Open AIM developer competition. Below are the 9 winning applications that can improve your AIM experience.
Netscape's Propeller is Changing More Than You Might Think
AOL's social news site relaunched today under the new name Propeller. No longer "the new Netscape", Propeller seems on face like a clone of a clone. There may, though, be much more going on underneath the surface.
The news of the move was received quietly, deemed proof by some critics that the project was just a failed Digg-clone; that its paid editors, friendly design and broad topic areas just didn't have the raw masculine power to discover great stories that Digg offers in its wild, untamed model of social news. That sounds ridiculous to me, but I don't spend any time on Netscape, either - I like Digg. (See also TechCrunch's mockery of Propeller, pirate style.)
