Profiles:  

You can join music message boards and listen to Internet radio on AIM, but you cannot listen to specific songs or watch music videos. From People Connection’s Uncut Video you can search user–generated videos by criteria such as keyword, category, location and event.

Security:  

Moderators monitor all message boards and underneath each posted message is a link to report objectionable content. Photos submitted for AOL’s gallery are subject to approval before they are posted. We conducted a test search for objectionable content—we did not find anything more objectionable than what can be found on primetime TV.

Networking Features:  

You can register with AOL and setup your AIM profile page. Then post information such as your background, interests and whom you’re looking to meet then upload photos and use AIM’s modules to customize your profile skin or upload your own.

Download free AIM software to instant message your friends; if you’re not at your computer, you can still IM from any Internet browser using AIM Express. You can also join public and private chat rooms. AOL People Connection and AIM make a good social networking package.

Access blogs, photo galleries, friends & flirts, expressions and pets on AOL People Connection or search AIM members’ profiles by keywords, gender, age and location. Click on a member’s picture to see his/her profile and post comments or invite them to join your group of friends.

You can block your AIM page from searches by other AIM users, but you cannot make your page private.

Search:  

AOL People Connection has a long list of message board categories (similar to Groups) such as Entertainment, Romance & Relationships, Sports, Lifestyles, News and Travel. Read comments posted on boards or post your own comments.

Help/Support:  

AOL has a few FAQs pages, but you have to sign up to access them and wading through the categories is time consuming. In addition, we could not find any contact information.

Legitimate Friend Focus:  

A permanent menu toolbar located at the top of each page make AOL People Connection and AIM easy to navigate. Although AOL People Connection and AIM are two separate sites, there is a direct link from the People Connection page to AIM, but once you are logged onto AIM, there is not a direct link back to People Connection. We recommend that you bookmark the People Connection page.

We had trouble logging onto AIM because of the pop–up blocking function on our browser. However, simply turning off the pop–up blocker may not be enough; we had to add AIM’s URL to our browser’s pop–up blocker exceptions list. We used Internet Explorer 6.0 and Mozilla Firefox 1.5. Newer versions may work better with the blocking functions.

AOL People Connection and AIM make a good social networking package. You can join message boards, access photo galleries, browse user profiles and view videos from People Connection. With AIM, you can create and customize your profile, join chat rooms and IM your friends. Switching back and forth between People Connection and AIM can be frustrating; it would be nice if AOL better integrated the two. Furthermore, there is no music section or contact information.