AIM Pages

May 10, 2006 11:09 PM

You have all dropped your MySpace profiles and jumped to AIM Pages, haven't you? [via]
posted by tellurian (48 comments total)

I haven't even got a MySpace profile.
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:13 PM on May 10, 2006

Doesn't everyone who's in the target market for AIM Pages already have a MySpace page? I can't imagine this is going to give anyone at MySpace a sleepless night.
posted by emelenjr at 11:22 PM on May 10, 2006

The giant sucking noise you hear is just the sound of $580 million in News Corp. money going down the MyDrain....
posted by paulsc at 11:23 PM on May 10, 2006

Nope, still trying to figure out why I'd want a MySpace profile when I have an ultra-1337 Metafilter profile.
posted by Jimbob at 11:24 PM on May 10, 2006

I gave up on individual networking sites. Anybody I want to meet I can meet in real life. This looks like a sort of myspace 2.0, which makes it kind of like Hindenburg 2.0 in my book, and the fact that it's AOL brand doesn't sweeten the deal.

As for online presence, I have an mp3 blog now and get more hits each day than I got my whole however long on myspace.

what is this post, anyway?
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:25 PM on May 10, 2006

I wasn't serious about the the MySpace crack. From the *via*: "Check out AOL's test 'playground' I Am Alpha to see what I mean. In there you'll see modules for popular web services such as: MySpace, YouTube, del.icio.us, Flickr, Amazon, eBay, MapQuest, Netflix, AOL apps, RSS feeds, plus plenty of other test modules."
posted by tellurian at 11:31 PM on May 10, 2006

I feel like this is an ad. Or something. I mean, I know it isn't, tellurian, but I'm still kind of confused about what the intent is.
posted by blacklite at 11:39 PM on May 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

what is this post, anyway?
Sorry, BlackLeotardFront and blacklite I guess I should have gone for a more serious (clearer) wording. It's about the launch of a new product from AOL.
posted by tellurian at 11:42 PM on May 10, 2006

MySpace used to be great, but they've been going to the crapper lately. Its only a matter of time before an even 2.0-ier website comes along and surpasses it. The original concept was great; however, the templates for these personal homepages is not as scalable as it needs to be.
posted by sswiller at 11:49 PM on May 10, 2006

Can I post pictures of my cat there?

That would be so cool.
posted by pompomtom at 11:52 PM on May 10, 2006

I think I speak for a major percentage of "us" when I say I couldn't be less excited about this.
posted by Parannoyed at 11:55 PM on May 10, 2006

Hey all you haters! I've done pretty well by Myspace recently.
posted by Meccabilly at 11:56 PM on May 10, 2006

Browser Not Supported!

AIM Pages currently doesn't support your browser, but we're working on it now so check back soon. If you don't want to wait, you can use the latest versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox today.

How can Safari not be supported? That is teh lame. The design looks cheap too, like a bad Web 2.0 imitation.
posted by airguitar at 12:09 AM on May 11, 2006

The thing that bugs me about it is the language.

"You can ___[blank]___ with the click of a button."

Heck, they don't even say it like they mean it anymore. They're just like, "Oh, it's time for the ol' "clickofabutton" promise. Throw that in there for good measure. Maybe sweet little old Grannie Gumdrop will want to know she won't have to think to do this." Except, one problem: It will take far more than one button click. I mean, who do they think they're fooling, at this point? Do they really think some idiot is going "Well, gee, I was going to put a profile on the internet, but I didn't because thought my finger and my brain would get tired, clicking all those buttons, trying to express myself, thank god now I can do it all with that sole button click."

Yeah, yeah, I know, maybe somebody out there hasn't ever heard of putting a "profile" on the internet and they need the prodding (according to AOL). But the promise of doing things "with the click of a button" is killing me. Maybe I need to fight fire with fire. I'll go arround and append "With the click of a button..." before anything I say I am going to do.

And with the click of a button, I submit to you this comment!
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 12:20 AM on May 11, 2006

SmileyChewtrain: "Heck, they don't even say it like they mean it anymore. They're just like, "Oh, it's time for the ol' "clickofabutton" promise.

A lot like "Coming up next, an all-new CSI." Yeah? All-new? New characters, new setting? Because it looks more like it's just partially-new.
posted by TheCowGod at 12:48 AM on May 11, 2006

Very beta, damn thing barely works on this machine. Lots of bugs, but some cool ideas. Modules, drag-and-drop, a bit easier to configure than MySpace, but slow as hell and unpredictable.

Behold.
posted by airguitar at 12:56 AM on May 11, 2006

With the click of a button, SmileyChewtrain made soundofsuburbia dribble coffee all over the keyboard.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 12:56 AM on May 11, 2006

airguitar, please go back and edit the settings of your Buddy module to make it cool. It is not cool at the moment.
posted by emelenjr at 1:29 AM on May 11, 2006

Fuck, AOL really squandered an opportunity back there in '98, '99... What?
posted by mr_roboto at 1:43 AM on May 11, 2006

This thing is a serious train wreck. Technical glitches everywhere, I switched to a Windos machine using IE, still sucks. Dig that fish tank though. That's almost cool.
posted by airguitar at 1:48 AM on May 11, 2006

AOL will take MySpace-like social websites to the next level of craptitude.
posted by tweak at 2:04 AM on May 11, 2006

Just more of the same. AOL tries to reinvent the wheel and fails ... again ...

Yahoo 360 also was a failure, so were MSN Spaces.
posted by homodigitalis at 2:06 AM on May 11, 2006

AOL is to MySpace as Limp Bizkit is to Korn.

On trying it out, it seems even slower than MySpace. I didn't think that's possible.
posted by brundlefly at 2:46 AM on May 11, 2006

whatever the fuck it is, i got sick of waiting for it to load after about 15 seconds. blah.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 2:55 AM on May 11, 2006

AOL is to MySpace as Limp Bizkit is to Korn.

When all we want is some Slayer...
posted by Jimbob at 3:44 AM on May 11, 2006

very beta

i just got a bunch of pop-up javascript errors and a blank page.

go aol!
posted by empath at 4:46 AM on May 11, 2006

Substitute "Pepsi" for "Love" in the lyrics of Pierre Cour as sung by Andy Williams. Why do I need to even remotely know about this?
posted by beelzbubba at 4:57 AM on May 11, 2006

I think a couple of hackers and one good designer could create a better myspace than myspace. What myspace has is a large and committed customer based. That's their advantage.

I'm a little surprised that AOL couldn't find a couple of hackers and one good designer, though.
posted by justkevin at 5:43 AM on May 11, 2006

Now let's see all I need is another page or service that will let me manage my google page, my yahoo page, my aim page, and my linkedup page.





I keed
posted by poppo at 5:50 AM on May 11, 2006

"Uh-oh. This module is empty. If you're the page owner, you'll need to edit the settings of this module to make it cool."

You can make it cool at the click of a button!
posted by imposster at 5:51 AM on May 11, 2006

That page looks like complete crap in Firefox. In IE7, it looks even worse. Way to harness the power of the Internets, AOL. Oh, PS - thanks for putting the last nail into the Netscape coffin. Bastards.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:16 AM on May 11, 2006

The problem with AIM in the first place is that all the good usernames are taken. At least with myspace I can have the same username I have everyplace else.
posted by smackfu at 7:21 AM on May 11, 2006

Isn't this something I should receive a crappy CD in the mail to read about?
posted by Peter H at 7:22 AM on May 11, 2006

Hmm, it just worked for me and was pretty cool. Personally, I feel like a 80 year old man on myspace -- I can't even figure out where you are supposed to stuff HTML into to get the page to change layout.

AIM pages just worked pretty quickly for me, but it was tedious to change everything on the page. It's an impressive UI that doesn't seem to require any page reloads, letting you edit directly in place (with firefox). I didn't try the style stuff out but they're definitely shooting for an easier to use myspace, and I think they've done well.

I didn't see any mention of messaging, and that's the killer feature of myspace for most people. If aimpages isn't compelling enough to replace email for most users, it's never going to take off.
posted by mathowie at 7:36 AM on May 11, 2006

very beta

Yeah, I'm starting to think beta and Web 2.0 are synonyms.
posted by danb at 8:39 AM on May 11, 2006

Is it integrated w/ AOL music by any chance? My teenage daughter absolutely loves the site (and I think it's pretty cool myself). It may even be the best online music service on the 'net (IMHO).
posted by rinkjustice at 8:47 AM on May 11, 2006

anyone else feel like metafilter has been infiltrated by advertising drones lately?
posted by casconed at 8:51 AM on May 11, 2006

I agree with people that some myspace pages resemble html warzones (but I like that, often) - these AIM pages remind me of a dentist's waiting room, though. Boring and very corporate.
posted by Peter H at 8:54 AM on May 11, 2006

If aimpages isn't compelling enough to replace email for most users, it's never going to take off.

I think that's right. I refused to get a MySpace account until a friend of mine started using it's weblog which I was expected to read and couldn't without an account. Then she quits using email and a couple days later is like, "Didn't you get the message I sent you? I sent it to you on MySpace!!!" For the love of God...
posted by airguitar at 9:05 AM on May 11, 2006

I'd use it if they ban the embedded video/music tags. Nothing like loading a myspace profile only to be assaulted by 4 videos from some myspace rap group/profile spammers trying to load.

Oh, and airguitar - you're not alone. That's the primary reason that I even have a myspace profile.
posted by drstein at 9:08 AM on May 11, 2006

Holy dinah. It's... uglier than myspace. How the hell...
posted by Isabeau Sahen at 11:02 AM on May 11, 2006

"Unable to Save At This Time."

In what sense is this thing past the "alpha" stage, to justify calling it a "beta"? There's nothing but bugs here.

Waste. Of. Time.
posted by dilettanti at 11:33 AM on May 11, 2006

Metafilter: You make web stuff for us to poop on.
posted by srboisvert at 11:52 AM on May 11, 2006

The 18 year old kid who works support with me was talking about this last night, so it probably is the next big thing. He was one of the early adopters of myspace, back in 03 or 04.
posted by nyxxxx at 12:13 PM on May 11, 2006

anyone else feel like metafilter has been infiltrated by advertising drones lately?
posted by casconed
You just didn't get it.
Aside from this, interesting comments. In particular matthowie's experience compared to everyone else.
posted by tellurian at 5:38 PM on May 11, 2006

homodigitalis wrote "Yahoo 360 also was a failure, so were MSN Spaces."

Agreed 100%. Friendster was Web 1.0 social networking, and its core audience included many people who could remember a time before the Internet and email. MySpace is social networking 2.0 and has captured the eyeballs of a generation that is completely connected by mobile phones, instant messenger and the Web.

AOL seems a bit confused as to who it's targeting here -- on the one hand, it's trying to be hip with the quoted messages above. On the other hand, it's got a Netflix queue listing, which appeals to an older crowd that -- as evidenced above -- finds all the "coolness" to be a bit lame. In fact, is there anyone that finds such coolness cool anymore?

Even Facebook has languished since it's much hyped rise into the mainstream, and that looked for a while as if it had a chance. But how are you going to get college kids to sign up for a cool social networking site when they've already had a MySpace page in high school for years?

Bah. All this makes me think about viral marketing. You don't create viral marketing by saying "Let's create a viral marketing campaign" -- you create viral marketing by saying "Let's think of a great idea." The same goes for these carbon copy social networking sites -- MySpace rose at a time when current users of Friendster were hitting a frustration point with its shortcomings and a new generation of youth technology users was beginning to communicate online -- right place, right time, right set of incremental features.

I'm not at all convinced that there is an adult market for social networking at the moment -- perhaps, as the MySpace generation gets older, there will be a desire for the next evolution... but you won't hear about it through a post on the blue, and it won't happen because AOL has taken the MySpace model and added some funky Web 2.0 widgets to it... for most people, you'll know about it when you get the second or third invite in your inbox, and that's only going to happen when the next set of new ideas and real innovations come along.
posted by VulcanMike at 7:00 PM on May 11, 2006

and With The Click of A Button...
...everything VulcanMike said.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 7:37 PM on May 11, 2006

I was going to but I didn't, uh...I didn't...dang! ADD sucks, I didn't--what's that word....

CARE!

That's it!
posted by deusdiabolus at 11:53 PM on May 11, 2006