Welcome!
Welcome to the myEarthLink Portal Product Blog! This blog is dedicated to the new myEarthLink personal start page, now available as a Preview release. As we add features and tweak functionality, we'll post updates here to let you know what we've added and what we're working on. We'll also be soliciting comments and ideas for new features here, to help us plan what we'll be adding down the road.
If you haven't checked out the new myEarthLink yet, click here to get the Preview. If you're logged on to the classic myEarthLink, your preferences should automatically transfer over to the new version. If you're logged out, you'll be able to log in with your existing username and password. If you're new to myEarthLink, you can set up a free user account here.
I know the first question for a lot of current myEarthLink users will be, "Why are you building a new start page in the first place?" In a nutshell, our mission is to make myEarthLink lighter, more adaptable and more intuitive. The primary feedback we get on the classic myEarthLink is that it feels cluttered. Our focus throughout the development process has been attacking this clutter, mainly by approaching the basic structure of the page in a radically different way.
If you turn on all the features on the classic start page, you end up with a very full plate. There are many useful things on the page, but it can take some time to find what you're looking for. And as you jump between features, you interact with each in a slightly different way. It's easy to feel overwhelmed.
In the new myEarthLink, we've addressed this problem in two major ways: First, we've grouped similar features into distinct areas. Second, we've built the page so that it surfaces content and functionality when you need it and then automatically hides it again when you don't need it.
For instance, in the Favorite Sites area on the left side of the page, we've grouped links to handy reference sites and channels. You can bring up search tools for each site and channel -- the job finder tool, for example -- by clicking on the icon to the right of the site name. When you click on another Favorite Site search button, or anywhere else on the page, the job search tool disappears.
The "alert dock" at the top of the page works in a similar way. On the Weather button, you can see the temperature and conditions for your home town at a glance. You can click the button to get more details on current conditions or check the weather for other cities. This opens an on-page box, which disappears again when you click anywhere else on the page. You can check stocks, reminders, game scores, security alerts the same way.
In the middle of the page, we've grouped "content-centric" information together -- for example, this is where you'll see news headlines, a preview of new emails, your horoscope and new movie releases. To fit a lot of content into a small space, we've built on-page tabs. In the news area, for example, you can tab through top headlines, international news, U.S. news, etc. Without tabs, you would be able to see 7 headlines. With tabs, you can get to 56 headlines in the same amount of space.
We also wanted to give users the ability to incorporate a range of content and sites directly into the start page. In the Preview release, you can see this type of functionality in the Favorite Sites on the left side of the page. We've put together a list of pre-set Favorites to cover the basics -- booking travel, looking up a word, etc. -- but we know you'll have more sites you want to include too. To add another site -- say, Wikipedia -- just click on the "Customize" button at the bottom of the Favorite Sites bar. Enter the URL for the site ( http://www.wikipedia.org) and a name to show on the Favorite Sites button (Wikipedia). This new site will show up in your Favorite Sites list every time you visit the page. You can search the added site directly from the start page by clicking the icon to the right of the site name.
In the months ahead, we'll be steadily adding new functionality to the page and tweaking the experience. The biggest upcoming addition is the ability to add custom news feeds to the News area. You'll be able to add local news easily, as on the classic myEarthLink, but will also be able to go a step further. If you want U.S. news from CNN, you'll be able to make a tab for that. If you want to get new stories from Slashdot, then you can make a Slashdot tab. The options will be wide open, and won't be constrained to traditional news either. If you want updates from a friend's blog, you can dedicate a tab to that as well.
We also have more "dock alerts" coming down the pipe. Up next, look for an eBay dock alert, similar to the eBay update widget on the classic myEarthLink. If you're an eBayer, this will give you the ability to track auctions, straight from the start page. Look for a Traffic dock alert soon as well. You'll be able to plug in the route for your daily commute, and get a quick update on traffic jams.
Soon, you'll be able to see more of your custom preferences on the start page. We'll show your personalized TV listings for the day, based on how you've set up the TV listings tool here. You'll also be able to easily see where new movie releases are playing near you, and you'll be able to click straight to your myEarthLink Radio channels.
Finally, we're working on new ways to customize your page. You'll be able to move and remove more items on the page, such as the features in the alert dock area at the top of the page. We'll also be launching new design themes and color options later in the year, so you can spice your page up.
I hope you enjoy the new myEarthLink. Watch this space to track what we're working on and discuss what you would like to see next.