AOL Unveils Stand-Alone Apps

America Online is offering its members a shortcut: a suite of applications that give access to key AOL functions without requiring the full-blown AOL client software.

Called AOL Communicator, the suite includes an e-mail client, an address book, a souped-up version of AOL Instant Messenger, and the Radio@AOL streaming audio service. It becomes available Tuesday as a free download for AOL members only (keyword: communicator).

AOL's Alternatives

Analysts are praising AOL for offering a more mature suite of communication tools, untethered from its client services.

"AOL is recognizing that its members are getting more comfortable with the Internet and applications like e-mail," says David Ferris, president of Ferris Research.

AOL Communicator arrives less than two weeks after AOL unveiled AOL 9.0 Optimized, a new version of its client software. It also comes as rival Microsoft readies an update to its competing MSN 8 Internet service and software.

"AOL is doing everything it can to prevent member defection," Ferris says. AOL recently revealed 804,000 subscribers have left the service in the last quarter. Microsoft reports MSN has lost 300,000 dial-up subscribers since October.

Netscape's Cousin

The entire suite of software bears a striking resemblance to the Netscape 7.x suite, also owned by AOL Time Warner, and released last summer.

Buttons and features of AOL Communicator are located in mostly the same spots as in the Netscape applications. But AOL Communicator's ties to AOL are evident; for example, its Communicator Mail limits the level of customization you can apply to some aspects of the program. AOL Communicator Mail does not let you add Netscape Web-based e-mail accounts to the client, but the Netscape client does.

Overall, the free, downloadable Netscape 7.1 is a more complete package, bundling a Web browser and basic Web-authoring software. However, AOL is giving AOL Communicator some nice AOL member-only features not available to Netscape users.

Nonetheless, the AOL Communicator launch raises further questions about the longevity of the Netscape software suite. In July, America Online laid off about 50 Netscape software developers and decided to end development of Mozilla browser technology.

E-Mail Improvements

A chief feature of AOL Communicator is AOL Communicator Mail. AOL has been long criticized for its e-mail client, which has been branded clumsy and aimed at Internet novices.

"We are targeting the growing portion of AOL users who have requested access to AOL e-mail from outside of the AOL service," says Andy Spillane, executive director of AOL Communicator. "We've done our best to give them an experience they'll be familiar with."

Many of those new features mirror functions of Netscape 7.1. Among them:

• A spam filter that blocks e-mail based on message attributes (called a Bayesian filter)
  
  
• Support for multiple e-mail accounts plus other third-party POP e-mail accounts
  
  
• A bundled version of Radio@AOL
  
  
• Support for offline reading and writing of e-mail
  
  

Features limited to AOL Communicator include:

• The capability to "unsend" unread mail to other AOL members
  
  
• An advanced instant messaging client, supporting SMS messaging to mobile phones, Super Buddies, and more
  
  
• Seamless integration between the address book, e-mail, and AIM client
  
  
• AOL Screensaver that displays personalized news and weather content
  
  

Wish-List Items

One missed opportunity: The client does not include access to AOL Calendars, which are greatly enhanced in AOL 9.0 Optimized. Calendars are an important part of Microsoft's upcoming successor to MSN 8, tentatively called MSN Premium.

MSN Premium's e-mail client is tightly married to Microsoft's Outlook e-mail and calendar systems. It adds a so-called Outlook Connector, which lets users view their various in-boxes in one client and combine and share calendars, Microsoft says.

While far more sophisticated than the company's AOL software, Communicator Mail will not appeal to hard-core e-mail junkies. It lacks such key features as support for third-party spam filters or public key encryption technologies.

If AOL is the Internet for beginners, then the AOL Communicator suite is e-mail and instant messaging for intermediates. The program will appeal to AOL e-mail and AIM junkies hankering for easier access to their mailboxes and advanced instant-messaging functions.