AOL Announces New Animated SuperBuddy Icons; Special Cast of Buddy Icon Characters Available to AOL Members This Summer in AOL 9.0 Optimized

Business Wire, June 26, 2003

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DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 2003

Ben Stiller and Star Jones Become First Celebrities With

SuperBuddy Status

New Survey Reveals That Vast Majority of Internet Users Today Send

Instant Messages; Buddy Icons Top List of Customization Features

America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that a new cast of SuperBuddy(TM) icons will be a highlight of AOL(R) 9.0 Optimized, the new version of AOL that will be available as a special preview to current AOL members beginning this summer. Members will be able to get a sneak peek of SuperBuddy icons and other new features that will launch in AOL 9.0 Optimized as part of a new "AOL 9.0 Optimized is Coming" promotional campaign online.

AOL SuperBuddy icons are 3D computer-animated characters that combine creative and technical artistry to bring to life instant messaging with color, sound and humor. Innovative in their execution, these icons translate common chat abbreviations and phrases into personality-driven character animations on the recipient's screen. For example, as a member types "LOL," a character may act out the acronym by laughing with comical gestures or expressions and by typing "zzz" another character may fall asleep with a dramatic flourish.

At launch, the SuperBuddy cast will include more than 50 original icons, from animals to people to funny objects, with different moods, personalities and traits, including "Walrus" with a strong, deep voice that's tinged with a lisp because of his long tusks, and "Bug" who has chronic allergies and wheezes with a high-pitched nasal voice. Members will need to upgrade to AOL 9.0 Optimized to see and share SuperBuddy icons.

SuperBuddy icons are part of a suite of new instant messaging and personalized expression features in AOL 9.0 Optimized designed to make it even more fun to be online and communicate with friends and family. Along with the new SuperBuddy icons, the AOL service makes it easy for members to combine thousands of other Buddy icons with IM wallpaper, custom smileys, and sound effects to customize their own online expressions.

To mark the iconic status of AOL's SuperBuddy icons, two special celebrity icons will be introduced this summer. Ben Stiller, star of the upcoming feature film Starsky and Hutch, and Star Jones, host of ABC's The View, will be the first celebrities ever to be immortalized as animated SuperBuddy icons when AOL launches its first gallery of animated icons. A more complete celebrity edition is in development for later in the year.

"On AOL, Buddy icons are already so popular they've become an online buzz indicator of what's hot," said David Gang, Executive Vice President for AOL Products, for America Online. "Our members change icon expressions based on their moods and opinions, or as fans of favorite sports teams and music artists. Now, with AOL 9.0 Optimized, we're supercharging instant messaging with a special cast of SuperBuddy icons together with a suite of instant messaging features to make it fun to be online, express yourself and communicate with friends and family."

The popularity of instant messaging has skyrocketed over the past few years. Each day, more than a billion IM's are sent all over the world. As instant messaging continues to grow, there's a rising trend among online users who have embraced the ability to personalize their messages through the use of icons, sounds, smileys and wallpaper. An AOL Instant Messaging Trends survey released today, conducted in partnership with Opinion Research Corp. from May 30th through June 9th, revealed that three-quarters (76%) of Internet users use instant messaging. In addition it showed that of the nearly 60% of respondents who customize their instant messaging applications, 85% say that buddy icons are the most common ways that they personalize messages.

AOL SuperBuddy icons were created much in the same way as today's full length, feature-quality animated films, but customized to be delivered within the medium of instant messaging. Artists began with a hand drawn sketch that's fed into special software to transform the design into 3-D models, which are animated, given sound and compressed to play on AOL 9.0 Optimized through dial-up or the AOL(R) for Broadband service.

Each SuperBuddy icon has a unique graphical design and its own distinct personality. They express themselves through more than 20 different animations and sound effects, triggered in response to more than 75 of the most common chat phrases, abbreviated "text speak" and smileys that people use to instant message. AOL members can select a SuperBuddy icon that matches their own personality, mood and sense of humor.