We have some updates for you. We have added new themes! Simply click on the Themes link in the header, and you'll notice we've added a second page of new theme options. Of course, we'll be continually adding new themes:


We've also added new modules. One module I'd like to highlight is Pandora. Pandora is an online music radio service. They have a variety of great music radio stations! You can currently find this module under the "Recently Added" section or you can simply search our widget gallery for 'Pandora'.

Let's take a brief and closer look at YourMinis, which AOL acquired last week. YourMinis create widgets for you to use on your blog, website, startpage, and desktop. Yes, all 4!

So how does it work?

First, go to the widget gallery, and let's choose the "YouTube Videos" widget which is currently under the Top Rated widgets:



Next, after selecting the widget, you will see a preview of the widget. In the grid view, select the "COPY ME" button to select your destination for the widget. You should see this now:




Next, you choose your destination for the widget. For example, if you are using Windows Vista, you will choose the Windows icon in the 3rd Row. Or, if you want to use it in FaceBook, you will select the FaceBook icon in the 1st Row. I will choose the first option 'Copy Embed Code', which will provide me an HTML code snippet and I simply just copy/paste the code into this blog entry. Each blog type differs in how they require you to embed HTML code, but many of the popular blogs are listed as default options (shown above).

Done!

**NOTE: currently, only a limited number of YourMinis work with myAOL. For the specific list of widgets, please view this previous blog post.

AOL announced yesterday the acquisition of the company Goowy.

Goowy is a hot company that offers a variety of sleek and fun widgets for you to use. We already offer a number of rich yourminis widgets created by Goowy within myAOL but you can definitely expect to see new Goowy's widgets soon in the myAOL product, so we can offer you more new and improved widgets!

Please welcome the Goowy team to the AOL family, and more importantly, we hope you will equally like what they have to offer.

Read a TechCrunch review and hear from Goowy's CEO. Welcome Goowy!

We just launched a new feature for myAOL: themes. You can now select and choose your own theme to personalize your page. It has been a highly requested feature!

You can add your own theme by clicking on the Themes link in the upper right corner of the page, shown here:



Then, simply choose the theme that you prefer:


Please contact us if you would like to see any particular new theme. We will be adding new themes throughout the year - enjoy!

In addition to the AOL Mail module, you can now also add the Gmail Module and Yahoo Mail modules! Check them out if you have a Gmail or Yahoo account.

You can find the Gmail module here:


And find the Yahoo Mail module here:

We just added another new module today - the MapQuest Module. MapQuest is America's #1 mapping website on the Web. You can use this convenient module to instantly get maps and routes, or you can use it to find businesses and places.

Below is a sample map of San Francisco:

You are now able to add the "What's Hot" module from Mgnet onto your own myAOL start page! What's Hot will provide you with all the latest and hottest news across the Web. The module itself is a nice image cloud that updates itself in real time.

New to myAOL? Check out this quick product tour which our team put together! Let us know what you think, and if you want to see more (or less) of these videos.

The myAOL suite is all about personalization. Personalization, and myAOL, is all about tailoring pages to a user's characteristics or preferences. But personalization exists beyond the Web, and this concept has existed much longer than the Web in a variety of forms.

Here is the first post, in a continual series, devoted to "personalization spotting".



(photo courtesy of Flickr)