AOL Beta Round-Up: A Sneak Peak at AOL Software Currently in Development AOL Explorer Adds Flavor - and Power - to Internet Explorer Wayne Kawamoto
A Web powerhouse that is perhaps best known for its ubiquitous promotional CDs, America Online is a service provider to millions. But with Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others making online inroads, it's no surprise that AOL continues to improve its tools to stay current and competitive. In this regard, AOL Explorer, AOL Media Player, AOL Toolbar, and AIM Triton Instant Messaging Client — all currently in pre-release beta versions or fresh out of beta release at press time — promise useful new features to both AOL users and non-converts.
While AOL Explorer is an AOL-branded version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 that has some excellent navigation and "power browsing" features, if you'd rather stay with Internet Explorer, you can rely on the AOL Toolbar, which adds a menu within IE that allows you to conveniently search the Web and access AOL services.
The AOL Media Player offers a solid program for playing audio and video files, much like Microsoft's Windows Media Player and Real Video's RealPlayer. There are unique features in AOL's release that will appeal to many users. Finally, AIM Triton Instant Messaging Client supports AOL's instant messaging services and offers some definite enhancements.
While the programs are not necessarily best of breed, they're competent and useful. And like those from the other services, many are free (potential pricing was not available at press time). For the most part, your decision to try or ignore these programs will probably depend on how much you rely on AOL's services.
Today we'll take a closer look at the Web browsing tools in AOL's beta arsenal; check back next week for an in-depth look at the new multimedia and IM releases.
Explore Online
To visit and view Web sites, AOL Explorer offers an America Online-flavored version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Not surprisingly, the program feels
much like regular Internet Explorer and uses many of its browser conventions. However, AOL has enhanced the browser to not only make it easy to access AOL services, but also to more efficiently surf the Web.
Taking a cue from Opera and Mozilla's Firefox Web browsers, AOL Explorer offers a tabbed browsing interface that lets you open several Web pages in a single window and quickly switch between them by clicking their respective tabs. The tabbed interface also allows you to view and work with one site while another is loading and opening. If you've worked with spreadsheets in Excel, you'll find AOL Explorer's tabbed approach much the same.
As they function for spreadsheets and in newer Web browsers, tabs offer an excellent approach for effectively managing and viewing multiple Web pages. The tabs display along the top of the browser where they're clearly visible and easily accessible. And along the left side of the screen, the interface
displays additional tabs to access browser information such as favorites and history, and – no surprise here – AOL-based e-mail and other AOL services, including news feeds, history, and branded channels for entertainment, games, food, jobs, and more.
While tabs would be useless if they were hard to configure and use, AOL Explorer offers good control over creating and managing tabs. You can reorder open tabs by simply dragging and dropping them and create new tabs by accessing an option from the main menu, using a option or clicking the middle button (wheel) on your mouse. You can also group tabs into folders and set the program to automatically open designated windows when you launch the browser.
