AIM Mail Widgets: Webmail Finally Growing Up

Sam Harrelson on November 19, 2008

I logged into my AIM mail account today. That’s not something I do frequently. However, if these new widgets I found waiting for me are any indication of future development, I may be giving AIM (how about AOL Mail?) a second look.

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AOL is famous for having been a walled-garden portal in the past. However, as I wrote last week, AOL is really on the ball with the whole spirit of the open web by introducing ways to bring in content from such places (competitors?) as Yahoo Mail, GMail, Twitter, Facebook, etc on the main AOL homepage, which does millions of impressions every month.

And the results from this newfound embracing of openness are more engagement, more pageviews and more attention. AOL is on to something.

With these new widgets in AIM mail, you can integrate Yahoo Mail, contacts, AIM, AOL Finance, Mapquest, etc within your inbox. GMail has this same feature with its Labs platform, so it’s good to see competition there. The trick with AIM is that they are bringing in properties from outside the AOL universe (unless the AIM Mail team knows something about a Yahoo/AOL deal that we don’t). Nifty.

However, my main question is if this is a sign of the future? Will you eventually be able to update Twitter or your Facebook status (or send Facebook messages) within AIM or AOL mail as you can on the AOL home page? If so, that will be very compelling. Will I ditch GMail for AIM even if that happens? Perhaps not, but I will definitely take a second look at my AOL/AIM mail.

It’s time for web-based email clients to grow up and become platforms instead of proprietary gardens of in-house developers. I’m glad to see AOL is helping to make that happen.

Pepperjam is the Network for Comic and SciFi Geeks

Sam Harrelson on November 19, 2008

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Comics were a huge part of my dorky teen years (but I only read the cool comics that you had to ask for from behind the counter). I still have soft spot in my heart for all things Marvel, DC, Image, Darkhorse, etc.

So, I was excited to see that Pepperjam now has the Marvel affiliate program in their network. Pepperjam also has the Star Trek affiliate program, making it a nostalgic choice for fanboi’s and geeks who, like myself, appreciate the finer things from Jim Lee or Frank Miller. Come to think of it, they also have MGM (Stargate) and Warner Bro’s (DC merchandise, Batman, Harry Potter and 300). Lots of geek cred there.

The Marvel program has 45 day cookies and starts at 7% and works up to 10% with volume. There is supposedly a datafeed on the way as well.

I’ll definitely be checking that one out for Christmas since Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk were such big hits this year and there is always a crowd hungry for X Men and Spiderman goodness (plus there’s the upcoming Wolverine and Avengers movies in the works).

Good stuff.

Marvel Launches Affiliate Program on Pepperjam Network

Google Makes Blackberry’s Usable (and Enjoyable)

Sam Harrelson on November 19, 2008

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I admit it. I still have a Blackberry instead of an iPhone. And I love my Blackberry (and so does my 1 year old daughter). It doesn’t help that I’ve sold my soul to Verizon and AT&T has poor coverage in this area of Western North Carolina. I have an iTouch, so don’t take away my geek cred.

However, things such as Google Sync and the GMail app make having a Blackberry beyond bearable and actually enjoyable. The ability to sync Google Calendar with my Blackberry’s Calendar over the air is tremendous.

And now there is an impressive new update to Google Sync that also allows you to sync your Blackberry’s contact manager with your GMail contacts. Sweetness:

Official Google Mobile Blog: Google Sync for BlackBerry: Now with contacts: “You asked for it, so here it is. We’re happy to announce that in the latest update to Google Sync for BlackBerry, we’ve added two-way contacts synchronization. This new functionality will enable you to sync your handheld’s built-in address book with your Gmail contacts. This all happens in the background and over the air, so your information is always up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.”

Now I can sync my calendar, contacts, mail and to do list (via Remember The Milk’s awesome RSync Blackberry app) over the air. Not to mention I can check Google Docs, Google Reader and Evernote all from my device.

All of a sudden my Blackberry just became a complete cloud computer.

Messianic Ethics?

Sam Harrelson on November 19, 2008

John Howard Yoder’s still influential The Politics of Jesus
continues to evoke responses from a variety of angles within the large umbrella of “religious studies.”

While I’m most familiar with the historical responses to Yoder, here is an interesting piece on the possible ethical implications of Yoder’s work on politics and early followers of Jesus (and Jesus himself):

(Thanks to my advisor/teacher/mentor/friend/provacateur Prof Goodman for sending over…)

Is a Messianic Ethic Possible: Recent Work By and About John Howard Yoder http://documents.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=4617204&access_key=key-2a430n4jkgsokb4zegf3&page=1&version=1&viewMode=

Is a Messianic Ethic Possible: Recent Work By and About John Howard Yoder

Testing Out Mobile Posting

Sam Harrelson on November 14, 2008

Apologies for the test, but I’d like to see how well this WordPress app for the iPhone works on my Touch and with this site.

This will be quite nifty for on the fly posts!

So far so good.

iPhone and Touch Apps for Parents

Sam Harrelson on November 14, 2008

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I’ve been doing lots of daddy day care for my 1 year old daughter this week, so this a topic definitely on my mind…

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): “Baby Monitor Did you forget to bring Jr.’s monitor to Grandma’s house? Put your iPhone next to his crib and launch Baby Monitor. When he starts to wail like a banshee, Baby Monitor calls a pre-determined number, like Grandma’s landline. Baby Monitor costs $0.99US.”

Nifty!

AOL Opening Up to Growth

Sam Harrelson on November 13, 2008

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Bill Wilson, AOL’s EVP of Programming, emailed me a followup to my post on AOL’s recent successes to let me know that the new comScore Media Metrix reports were out.

AOL had significant growth both in the passive page view metric as well as the more active attention metrics. New visitors and users were also both up 9% this year over last.

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The corporate press release with all of its statistical goodness can be found here:

AOL Sites Hit Record Audience Reach and Engagement in October | AOL Corporate: “AOL programming sites hit all-time high traffic numbers and marked the 21st month of consecutive year-over-year growth for unique visitors, according to the October 2008 comScore Media Metrix report. Unique visitors to AOL’s programming content sites grew 7% year-over-year to 54.3 million in October, and page views more than doubled, up 101% year-over-year to 4.2 billion. Engagement (total minutes) grew 51% year-over-year in October. Total minutes reached an all-time high on AOL.com, http://aol.com, growing 27% year-over-year. Additionally, AOL.com page views grew 27%, and unique visitors and total visitors were up 9%, year-over-year, as the site further opened up to third-party content, services and features. In addition, AOL Webmail, http://mail.aol.com, reached an all-time high of 3.5 billion page views marking a 31% year-over-year growth. “

As I wrote in my post last week, AOL is on the right path with their decision to open up and allow existing and new users to leverage the AOL.com homepage as their home base for the web. We’ve recently seen Yahoo and just this week Microsoft’s Live.com follow in similar paths as well as Google with the iGoogle platform.

I don’t think we’re in a return phase of the “power of the portal,” but we are seeing the metaphor of the portal being expanded to encompass social media and social networks and real time (AIM) data deliverability and consumption.

Pay attention to AOL and Platform-A.