As we said they would (CI No 3,309), America Online Inc has announced its AOL Anywhere initiative to deliver products from AOL.com to non-subscribers. The products now available across the web include AOL NetMail, which enables AOL members to send and receive AOL e-mail from anywhere on the web, and AOL Instant Messenger, a real-time internet messaging service. Also available on the web is the latest version of the online service’s software, AOL 4.0 – which is in a limited preview for 30 days. Soon to come is My News, a personalized web page with customized content, similar to Yahoo! Inc, My Yahoo! service. AOL also announced a partnership with Qualcomm Inc in which Qualcomm will offer a co-branded version of AOL’s Instant Messenger with its Eudora email software. Instant Messenger, will be bundled with upcoming releases of Eudora Lite 4.0, Eudora Pro 4.0 and Eudora Pro CommCenter and will make Instant Messenger available to Eudora’s estimated 18 million internet users. In addition the two will make Eudora software available to AOL members. With the web-based products, AOL – which relies heavily on advertising revenue in addition to membership fees – can promise advertisers more traffic on its site. The move also helps to lure new members, although AOL would have you believe its primary motive is to help its members to communicate with non-members. On the back of the news, AOL shares rose $1.1875 to $86.1875 on a day when technology stocks were generally hammered.
