AOL OpenRide: A Trip into the Next Generation of AOL The Challenge of Competing in the Realm of Portals Adam Stone
It's Beta Software After All, But...
These are the quibbles, which in fairness might be attributed to Helix's beta status. Stuff may get fixed over time. But there are fundamental issues here, serious enough to make us question the whole undertaking.
First and most significant, we can't say we're sold on the basic premise of the app — the "pane" concept that divides up a user's screen to no good purpose. Looking at the browser pane, roughly a third of our screen is not browser. It's a mail pane, an AIM pane, and a media pane. Even with today's big screens, that is a ridiculously large amount of real estate to give up for applications that are not in use.
Of those applications, we want two off of our screen entirely.
Why devote a pane to instant messaging? And another to photos and music and movies? Granted, these are two very popular applications, but their use is sporadic. We don't need AIM to have the kind of always-on presence that we require of an internet browser or a mail interface.
Nor, for that matter, do we need panes at all. Why panes? In order to simplify switching from one application to another. That would seem to be the logic. But how hard is it to do that anyway? The absolute novice might stumble once or twice, but pretty much the whole world of computer users manages to multitask successfully every day.
The Challenge of Competing in the Realm of Portals
AOL faces a real challenge here. If it wants to compete against the ad-driven portals of the world, it will need to offer something different from the others. One may argue, sadly, that what AOL has chosen to do is to stake out its ground in the arena of mere presentation.
At its best, AOL Helix is a surface play, an admittedly clever new take on the look and feel of the internet interface. But it's all "look and feel" at this point. There is no new functionality to speak of, no new muscle in any significant sense. The only substantial change lies in what has gone away: Helix is, to its credit, largely free of the content management and chaperoning that have long made AOL anathema to experienced users.
Even on this score, AOL seems reluctant to let go. As AOL moves away from a subscription model and toward a wider audience, one might it expect to give users a free, and by now more familiar, hand in discovering their own content. But that is not the case.
Follow the Settings option to personalize your music content and you go straight to the AOL Music channel. An effort to personalize a calendar steers users to the AOL Mail calendar function, while the desire to personalize one's travel preferences leads inevitably to the AOL Travel channel, co-branded with Travelocity.
Still, these may be just the early transitional days in AOL's efforts to open up. Looking toward the big picture, it is entirely possible that Helix's interesting and novel interface may prove a draw to those looking for a different way to experience the internet.
Pros: New QuadPane interface with Dynasizer simplifies switching from one application to another; combines Web browser, mail, IM, and media center into one interface; also includes AOL Desktop Search, AOL Toolbar, and AOL Safety & Security tools
Cons: Gobbles screen space with idle apps, interface not as simple or intuitive as expected
