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America Online just keeps on growing. The online giant has passed the 26 million mark in its worldwide membership, AOL announced Tuesday.

The new AOL 6.0 service, which accounts for 35 percent of all members' online sessions, has contributed largely to the new membership, the company said in a statement. The service was launched in October this year.

AOL 6.0 includes enhanced e-mail, featuring HTML support as well as the ability to sort messages by date, sender, and subject. Users can also access a built-in multimedia player, My Calendar, and a new Shopping Assistant.

With the holiday season, the company expects AOL 6.0 to continue to push membership growth, retention, and online shopping. Approximately 17 million AOL members regularly shop online, the company said.

Dana Gardner, research director of Internet infrastructure at the Boston-based Aberdeen Group is, however, skeptical.

"I'm surprised that AOL hasn't been able to extend itself further," he says. "I'm surprised that they haven't been able to grow considering the merger with Netscape--I don't see them sweeping the market." AOL completed its merger with Netscape Communications in 1999.

AOL's steadily declining stock, not the number of subscribers, is indicative of the company's performance, Gardner says.

"Their stock is depressed to the extent that people wonder whether just a large number of subscribers means anything," he says.

AOL's stock was trading Tuesday afternoon at $48.81 compared to $93.81 a year ago at this time.

The company's long-awaited merger with Time Warner could provide high-speed Internet access to more homes, Gardner notes.

"[AOL] still [has] a lot of content and it will be interesting to see how content and connectivity issues will play against one another," he says.