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AOL hosts 6th Annual Super Sunday Ad Poll

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AOL is featuringthe popular Super Sunday Ad Poll as a key component of its Super Bowl coverage. The gallery, sponsored by Verizon, lets fans watch, rank and share their favorite Super Bowl commercials at AOL Sports. In addition to the gallery, AOL Sports will feature exclusive columns, quizzes, interactive forums, photo galleries and FanHouse bloggers on-site in Phoenix.

The 6th Annual Super Sunday Ad Poll will let fans watch each commercial, comment on and rate their favorite ads. The ad poll will begin shortly after kick-off and will run for a week. New this year, users can rank their favorites instead of just voting for one, so the top rated commercials may change over the course of the week. AOL will show the list of the top 10 as currently ranked by users. Fans will also be able to comment on each commercial right on the site.

AOL also will feature Super Bowl content across its network, including: Rockin’ Football facts from Spinner; tips on entertaining from Pat Smith, Super Bowl legend Emmitt Smith’s wife, and more on Black Voices; and links to the best places to visit, stay and celebrate in Phoenix, as well as a guide to events in cities across the country on AOL CityGuide.

Originally posted on January 24, 2008 @ 11:05 am

AOL launches real-time IM for deaf and hard of hearing users

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AOL revealed that it is now testing the first real-time instant messaging (IM) feature targeted to deaf and hard of hearing users. Built with guidance from Gallaudet University and the Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this feature is in the latest beta version 6.8 of the popular AIM software.

The new real-time IM feature within AIM enhances instant message conversations by enabling users to see each letter that a buddy types rather than waiting for a friend to press the send button to view and read a message. This enables deaf users to respond and react to words as they are typed just as hearing people would do as words are spoken in a voice conversation.

To access this new feature, users simply click on “Actions” and then “Real-Time IM” from within an instant message window. A user may also highlight a buddy on his or her Buddy List and press Ctrl+R on the keyboard to initiate real-time IM. Both the IM sender and receiver must have the version of AIM that includes the real-time IM functionality to use the feature.

Originally posted on January 15, 2008 @ 3:44 pm

Userplane announces participation in Friendster Development Program

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userplane.pngUserplane announced the launch of Webchat 2 on Friendster’s global social network, using the new Friendster Developer Program.

Userplane Webchat is easily integrated and fully scalable, enabling rapid deployment of centrally hosted chat rooms. Key features include Minichat – a lightweight, fully skinnable chat output pane – and Userplane Money, a revenue-sharing platform that pays when it is used. Userplane recently announced that it has paid out more than $500,000 in six months to its partners, who have signed up with the Userplane Money program.

The Friendster Developer Platform was launched to enable developers and companies around the world to have secure and managed access to a set of APIs to Friendster data. These APIs provide seamless integration points within the Friendster web site to create and integrate compelling applications for Friendster’s more than 56 million users. The Friendster Developer Program provides developers the greatest freedom to monetize applications, and a completely open platform supporting existing and emerging standards. As a result, applications can be easily deployed on and off Friendster for Friendster users, and dynamic, new, compelling features can be created by developers via user-approved, easy access to user information and Friendster social network data.

Friendster’s application directory can be viewed at www.friendster.com/widgetdirectory

Originally posted on January 9, 2008 @ 4:45 pm

AOL launches Hot Seat, a syndicated political widget

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AOL has launched Hot Seat, a syndicated online political widget on AOL News. Hot Seat features daily political poll questions from some of the biggest political bloggers on the Internet, including The Huffington Post, Time’s Swampland, Slate, The Politico, Crooks & Liars, Power Line and Captain’s Quarters. The questions address current political issues and events as a way to stimulate a dialogue between voters, pundits and politicians. “Hot Seat” also features responses from major presidential candidates to specific questions posed to them by bloggers and pundits.

Hot Seat will be displayed on all AOL News, Elections and Political Machine pages as well as participating sites outside the AOL network. The Hot Seat widget showcases real-time poll question results on both a national and state-by-state level, while letting users share and discuss their views with users of various sites. Through “Hot Seat,” candidates will be given an opportunity to respond to questions and comment on the results of the various polls while providing an outlet that allows the public to become deeply engaged and integrated in the political blogosphere.

In addition to Hot Seat, AOL will provide comprehensive coverage of the campaigns. AOL’s Political Machine blog provides political coverage that combines blog posts from academics, journalists and the voting public. In the coming months, election coverage will also feature a Straw Poll that will house weekly candidate polls with real-time results and track the races for both parties. General election results will include additional local information, including county data, interactive maps and mobile distributions.

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Originally posted on December 19, 2007 @ 11:11 am

AOL Latino launches new hub on immigration

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aollatino.pngAOL Latino today launched a new immigration hub for the Hispanic-American community. The site offers users access to immigration news, blogs and message boards, as well as links to government resources, views of presidential candidates and information of immigration laws and policies.

Among the features of the immigration hub:

• The latest immigration news from a variety of news sources;
• Articles and blogs from members of the American Immigration Law Foundation;
• Quizzes in areas such as what to expect on the Citizenship Test;
• Links to governmental resources for renewing Green Cards or gaining permanent citizenship, etcetera;
• Message boards and chats;
• Interactive features that let users engage in conversations around the content.

Originally posted on December 13, 2007 @ 11:02 am