aol

AOL snaps up advertising company Buysight

AOL upped its advertising cache today by announcing that it bought Buysight, an ad company that focuses on retargeted and intent-based targeted advertising.

Buysight will be folded into AOL's Advertising.com Group. This group works on ad technology for desktop, mobile, tablets, and Internet connected televisions.

"We strongly believe that both brand and performance display, as well as mobile and video campaigns benefit from dynamic, targeted creatives and messaging," Advertising.com Group CEO Ned Brody said in a statement. "The acquisition of Buysight brings proven Dynamic Creative Optimization and machine learning capabilities which will further enhance … Read more

Could Yahoo's move away from media be AOL's big chance?

NEW YORK--Yahoo's new direction under CEO Marissa Mayer could be the big chance for AOL, a couple of former tech execs said today.

Ross Levinsohn, who served as interim Yahoo chief executive before Mayer's appointment, and Jon Miller, AOL's former CEO, said during a Business Insider conference in New York that Yahoo's shift away from becoming a media company in favor of focusing on its core tech offerings could be really lucky for AOL.

"It creates an opportunity for AOL I haven't seen for them in a number of years," said Miller, who … Read more

AOL's twist on e-mail: You've got stacks

Thursday's CNET Update is checking your away message:

Just when you've given up all hope of having an organized inbox, along comes AOL with a new e-mail client called Alto. Today's tech news roundup looks at how Alto manages multiple accounts and sorts messages into stacks. The service is in beta test now (so you have to sign up for an invite to try it), but it could be open to everyone by February.

In other news, Yelp is cracking down on companies that pay for reviews. If Yelp sees that a business is trying to inflate … Read more

Pigs fly: AOL's new e-mail client makes inboxes a happy place

It's probably the last company you'd expect to make using e-mail a better experience, but with its all-new e-mail client Alto, AOL is setting out to make your inbox a more organized and happier place than it's ever been.

Alto, which launches into a private beta this morning, is a client that works with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and .Mac mail accounts. It's designed with the idea that since 95 percent of the general population doesn't use folders, many people are suffering from "inbox fatigue" as hundreds or thousands of messages flood … Read more

AOL squatter launches his company -- no hiding out required

If ever there was someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, it's Eric Simons, known to many as the AOL squatter.

As CNET was first to report, Simons spent two months last year living surreptitiously at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif., offices, surviving on the company's kitchen fare, using its gym and locker room, and sleeping on its couches. All while working long days building a startup as part of an education-based incubator that had its offices in AOL's building. Until he was caught by AOL security and thrown out of the building, that is.

At the time, Simons' … Read more

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong: 'We haven't won yet'

SAN FRANCISCO--AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said he's happy with his oft-troubled company's progress -- including a tripling of its stock over the last year -- but said there's much more to do. "We haven't won yet," Armstrong said.

Speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt not long after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave his first live interview since the social networking giant's May IPO -- an event owned by AOL -- Armstrong told interviewer Michael Arrington that the company's comeback has been fueled by three main things: better internal operations; a focus on … Read more

AOL announces final plans for $1.1 billion shareholder payoff

AOL shareholders are well on their way to collecting that $1.1 billion the company promised them.

AOL announced today that it has entered into a Stock Repurchase Agreement with Barclays Bank that will see the company buy back $600 million worth of shares. According to AOL, it will receive shares through the rest of the year, including 4 million that it'll get from Barclays by the end of the month.

According to AOL, Barclays will buy up its shares on the open market with the proceeds provided in the agreement.

The share repurchase agreement is part of a plan AOL announced back in June … Read more

Add AOL's 'you've got mail' alert to Gmail

One of the most infamous alerts for new e-mail, AOL's "you've got mail," is now available as a Chrome extension to alert you of new Gmail messages, as reported by Mashable.

Setup of the extension, aptly titled You've Got Mail, is all that lies between you and a trip down memory lane.

Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store.

Log in to your Gmail account. You can close the tab, or leave it open -- you'll be alerted either way.

Sit back and wait for a new e-mail, or send yourself one to … Read more

After 8 months, AOL e-mail refresh finally complete

After five years of inattention, in 2011 AOL execs finally began to put some serious resources into the company's e-mail service, AOL Mail. Starting in December of last year, AOL began rolling out a new version of the service to its 24 million users. Today, the news is, the upgrade is complete.

That's right, it took eight months to upgrade the system.

Why?

David Temkin, SVP of mail and mobile, said that redesigning this service was, "kind of playing with fire." AOL e-mail drives "a ton" of traffic to AOL content sites, "from … Read more