You've Got Mail Through AOL's New Project Phoenix

On the heels of the launch of the new AOL (News - Alert).com and several new local content initiatives, AOL has unveiled a preview of the new AOL Mail, called Project Phoenix.

Project Phoenix was designed as an e-mail solution that fits the way consumers communicate today.

AOL Mail remains an important part of AOL's business. It represents 45 percent of the page views on the AOL network.

"E0mail remains one of the most vital communication tools despite all of the new sites and apps available to consumers today," said Brad Garlinghouse, president of AOL's Consumer Applications Group. "There is still so much innovation to be done in the space and Project Phoenix is just the tip of the iceberg. We see a huge opportunity to disrupt e-mail in a big way. AOL is the company that brought everyone online, and now we're making it simpler and more enjoyable to be there."

Project Phoenix users will notice a streamlined design that is visually appealing and intuitive. Other notable features of Project Phoenix include:

• Quick Bar: Makes it easy to quickly send e-mails, instant or text messages and even update Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter via Lifestream directly from the inbox.
• Smart View: Prominently displays important information like maps, attached photos and files, and conversation threads on the right hand side of the inbox so users can see relevant details and files before they even open a message.
• E-mail aggregation: Makes it is easy to receive and send messages from almost any provider, including GMail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail, in the AOL inbox.
• Single-click search: Makes it easy to search across any folder and all e-mail accounts and instantly refine the search by clicking simple options that appear dynamically next to the search results.
• Free access to premium service: Includes customer support for each e-mail account along with unlimited storage, a choice of POP or IMAP e-mail service, and support for e-mail attachments of up to 25MB.

In conjunction with the preview, AOL will offer consumers the opportunity to get the e-mail address of their choice by offering more options for name structures and new domains like love.com, wow.com and games.com. The full product will be released early next year, but interested users can sign up now to request an invitation to the beta version.