Just finished the AOL 9.0 download, and I was prepared for just another layout change (which was practically all that changed since 5.0....) but was surprised to see that very much was improved. When I say that, I don't just mean their features, but even the connection itself. The following are some things I like in the new AOL:
- Can add more sites to the toolbar thing (not just three anymore, but over 20)
- Animated icons react to what you send on AIM. They laugh and other things, hehe.
- More email features and virus protection.
- The first look that I actually liked since I judged AOL 4.0 years ago, lol.
- But most of all... it's faster! I have 56k (yes, don't need to say anything about that...) and had a relatively fast connection to AOL compared to others I know in other loactions before. But now there is a visible difference in speed, even on a modem. Games that lagged before no longer lag for me, downloads are quicker, and sites come up quicker. This, by far, is the best improvement to AOL in my opinion, and would be a large benefit to those in areas that have bad connections.
Well, not advertising AOL because there are many other great browsers and ISPs, but I thought that I'd try to convince those on AOL to upgrade. Now I believe that AOL is superior to MSN in terms of what it can do (AOL was faster than MSN in my area before, and now the gap just got wider), but that's completely dependent on the area. I can almost guarantee that it will be a great upgrade for those who hate AOL though, for almost everything I hear that's negative about it was changed.
Just thought that I'd review it since no one else has.

If you have AOL 9.0, feel free to post your opinions as well.

Update: Not sure yet, but I believe that the forum errors in AOL were also fixed (the "You are not permitted to access this forum" bug).
