News from AOL

An article by Ayelet Noff    4 Comments

It can be argued that AOL is the granddaddy of the social Web. They were the first to have a buddies list, the first to really get instant messaging, groups, email as a social graph and they were the first to integrate all of these in one service.

Lately they seem to be making a push back to their social roots with an entire division called People Networks built around their social properties (Bebo, AIM, Yedda, Socialthing and ICQ). AOL has previously launched social-networking features called Social Inbox, which is a one-stop destination with aggregated social feeds from across the Web, multiple email accounts and media recommendations. However, as Ziv Navoth, SVP marketing at people networks told me in our interview two weeks ago, AOL is planning much more to come. AOL plans to allow consumers to aggregate their disparate piles of online information through connective offerings that allow them to pool all kinds of Web content and communications in one place. In other words: Life Streaming. I will have more on this when it goes live.

AOL also recently announced a new country manager for Israel; Avichay Nissenbaum, CEO of Yedda. Avichay has an extensive background in the start-up industry; his first company  SmarTeam which focused on product lifecycle management was acquired by Dassault Systems in 1999, and Q&A site Yedda was bought by AOL in 2007.

In his role as Country Manager Avichay will focus on establishing better connections with the Israeli Web scene by promoting AOL’s developer network and the services that power known brands such as AIM, ICQ, Bebo, Winamp and Mapquest. His attention will also be focused on identifying local companies of value for potential acquisition. AOL currently has over 200 employees in Israel across several companies it has acquired over the years, namely: ICQ, Relegance, Quigo and Yedda. Avichay is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced leaders in the Israeli hi-tech industry and also a dear friend. I wish him much luck in his new role.