Celebrate the Spirit of the Season With AOL's Online Decorations

Business Wire, Dec 9, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2002

America Online Members Can Adorn Instant Messages, E-Mail and More with New Holiday-themed Buddy Icons, Wallpaper, Stationery and Sounds

What's the newest way to share holiday greetings with friends and family? Online - through instant messages and e-mails of course! This year, AOL's new "online decorations" let members personalize their messages to others with festive self-expression designs for the holiday and winter season at AOL Keyword: Holiday Self Expression.

AOL members can personalize their instant messages with whimsical Buddy Icons such as an animated Rudolph with a blinking nose or gently falling snowflakes, frame the note with colorful wallpaper designs, and add a special sound to signal its arrival such as carolers singing "Jingle Bells," a finicky eater announcing "Fruitcake...Blech!" or Santa Claus chortling "Ho, ho, ho!" Members can also include some extra cheer in their e-mails with holiday stationery that lies subtly behind the text in a message.

AOL's decorations include seasonal, religious and cultural themes, which can be mixed and matched into thousands of different combinations so members can enjoy a variety of expressions for occasions and interests from holiday greetings and winter weather to New Year's celebrations.

The self-expression features are just one of the many personalization options available in the new AOL 8.0, which provides a number of ways for members to personalize their own online experience from the moment they're connected, including the ability to change the screen appearance of AOL with different "theme" designs.

"You've trimmed the tree and decked the halls, now AOL members can express their holiday cheer through instant messages, e-mail and more with AOL's new online decorations. Our Halloween and Thanksgiving self-expression features were extremely popular and we're excited to offer AOL members a new array of special-occasion graphics and sounds to liven up their messages," said David Gang, Executive Vice President of Product Marketing at America Online. "With everything from festive sounds and animated Buddy Icons to e-mail stationery and online photo albums, there's no place like AOL for the holidays."

With AOL's online decorations, members can also customize and share holiday photo albums and homepages with family and friends and access a collection of screensaver designs, cards, and holiday "printables" for crafts and gifts. Easy holiday ideas on AOL include:

-- Holiday Online Photo Albums: With AOL's simple to use "You've Got Pictures" service, AOL members can create and share with family and friends online photo albums customized with a holiday background design (AOL Keyword: Pictures);

-- Holiday Homepages: With AOL Hometown, members can easily create their own holiday home pages as a unique way to send greetings, pictures or notes to friends and family (AOL Keyword: Hometown);

-- Holiday Greeting Cards: AOL members can send friends and family holiday-related electronic greeting cards from American Greetings (AOL Keyword: Holiday Greetings). They can also insert a digital photo into a card and add a personalized greeting (AOL Keyword: Photo Greetings), and

-- Holiday Downloads & Decorations: AOL offers a wide range of downloads such as screensavers (e.g. a holiday wreath), PC desktop wallpaper (e.g. a line of Christmas stockings), music (e.g. Dean Martin singing "Let It Snow") and printable material (e.g., mailing labels, cookie recipes, paper ornaments, 2003 calendars and cover designs for holiday CDs).

For additional ways to get into the spirit of the season, AOL members can visit AOL Keyword: Holidays to hear greetings from celebrities, play holiday music, write to Santa and much more.

For a free upgrade to AOL 8.0, members can visit AOL Keyword: Upgrade. Others can download AOL 8.0 at www.aol.com or with CDs available at retailers nationwide.

About America Online, Inc.

America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: AOL). Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.