AOL launches AOL Latino service for the U.S. Hispanic community. The new service provides AOL features and services such as Toolbar Navigation and Parental Controls in Spanish.

As part of the new service AOL Latino announces more than 15 new content partners. 

Alexandre Pires, Bacilos and Gloria Estefan participate in AOL's "Cámara Célebre" program, where these celebrities take digital photos at the most prestigious event, the Latin GRAMMY® Awards, to create their own personal photo albums exclusively for AOL members. 

AOL® 9.0 Optimized launches with an option for members to access a Spanish Welcome Screen, which leads into five new Spanish language programming areas.

AOL launches its first "Sesiones@AOL" with Bacilos as part of the new Música channel.  This exclusive program is the Spanish version of the exclusive live performance series, where each AOL Latino member is like a "fly on the wall" observing their favorite artists from every major record label performing in an intimate studio environment. 

AOL announces partnership with Heineken and American Express.  Under the agreement these advertisers become the leading sponsors of the Latin GRAMMY®  programming areas on the AOL service. The promotions include an online consumer promotion sweepstakes with the chance to win a trip to the Latin GRAMMY®  Awards and VIP tickets to the event.

AOL announces its AOL Member Choice Awards where members vote for their favorite Latin music artists in quirky categories such as best dressed, biggest diva, worst hair and many others.

AOL Latino extends its relationship with the Latin Recording Academy® as the exclusive online partner for the 4^th Annual Latin GRAMMY®  Awards, continuing AOL's unprecedented online coverage with images and information leading up to, during and after the most important event for Latin music.

AOL distributes Spanish language CD with the Puerto Rican Flag in honor of New York's Puerto Rican community during the Puerto Rican Parade in New York City.  More than 75,000 specially designed disks are distributed throughout the weekend celebrations.

AOL Latino sponsors the telecast of the Puerto Rican Parade on Telemundo Network.

David Wellisch is appointed General Manager of AOL Latino to spearhead the development of product, content and services, specifically geared towards AOL's growing Hispanic audience.

Latino stars create their own personal photo albums exclusively for AOL Keyword:  Latino to benefit the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.  This specialized photo gallery called "Cámara Célebre" features candid images from inside the exclusive party celebrating People en Español's best-selling issue.

AOL launches its first national advertising campaign created exclusively for the U.S. Hispanic market.  The TV advertising campaign titled "Mouse," focuses on themes about family, friends and education and emphasizes the
AOL features that are particularly appealing to Hispanics such as entertainment and the ability to stay in touch with people here and abroad.  This campaign highlights AOL's commitment to serving and reaching the Hispanic Community.  The spots ran on Univision, Telefutura and Galavision.

AOL and Univision Communications Inc. expand their strategic content and marketing alliance.  The agreement fortifies both companies' efforts to increase U.S. Hispanic Internet penetration and better reach current Hispanic Internet users, the country's fastest-growing online community.  America Online expands its

Spanish-language outreach by securing significant on-air and online presence on Univision-owned media.

AOL tours top Hispanic markets revealing to Hispanic advertising agencies and advertisers the key findings of the Hispanic Cyberstudy.

For the first time AOL members can register in Spanish for the AOL® service with a CD designed specifically to target the U.S. Hispanic market.  AOL distributes its first-ever Spanish language registration CD at the largest Hispanic street festival, Calle Ocho, in Miami.

AOL and HP hit the road with the Sears Fiesta Mobile® touring top Hispanic cities.  This is a 46 weeklong campaign utilizing the Sears Fiesta Mobile that tours key markets including Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Chicago.

For the first time, AOL selects an advertising agency that specializes in the U.S. Hispanic marketplace, hiring Casanova Pendrill as their advertising agency of record to promote Keyword:  AOL Latino and services.  Casanova Pendrill is one of the top agencies in the country, having produced successful advertising campaigns for market leaders doing business in the Hispanic community.

AOL Latino retains Miami based C-Com Group Inc. as their public relations agency for the U.S. Hispanic market. 

America Online unveils its first ever research study about U.S. Hispanic online usage. The Cyberstudy conducted by RoperASW shows that U.S. Hispanics are embracing the Internet and going online in record numbers.

Key findings from this Cyberstudy show that Hispanic consumers report spending more time online than total U.S. online consumers.  Also, a majority of Hispanic online consumers stated that going online is the best source to: start the process of learning about a product and/or service they might want to buy; learn about features and benefits of a specific brand of a product and /or service; learn about different brands of a product and/or service that are available; and compare prices of the product and/or service.

With the launch of AOL® 8.0, America Online offers for the first time the option of having Spanish language content on the Welcome Screen with links to its Spanish language content area, AOL Latino. 

AOL begins to offer free customer service in Spanish through a toll free number.

America Online and The Latin Recording Academy® sign exclusive, multi-year agreement to bring the excitement of the Latin GRAMMY® Awards online.

AOL introduces Keyword: LATINO for fast access to Spanish language content.