AOL ANNOUNCES NEW ANIMATED SUPERBUDDY ICONS
Special Cast of Buddy Icon Characters Available to AOL Members This Summer in AOL 9.0 Optimized
Ben Stiller and Star Jones Become First Celebrities With SuperBuddy Status
New Survey Reveals That Vast Majority of Internet Users Today Send Instant Messages; Buddy Icons Top List of Customization Features
DULLES, VA, June 26, 2003 -- America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that a new cast of SuperBuddy™ icons will be a highlight of AOL® 9.0 Optimized, the new version of AOL that will be available as a special preview to current AOL members beginning this summer. Members will be able to get a sneak peek of SuperBuddy icons and other new features that will launch in AOL 9.0 Optimized as part of a new "AOL 9.0 Optimized is Coming" promotional campaign online.
AOL SuperBuddy icons are 3D computer-animated characters that combine creative and technical artistry to bring to life instant messaging with color, sound and humor. Innovative in their execution, these icons translate common chat abbreviations and phrases into personality-driven character animations on the recipient’s screen. For example, as a member types "LOL," a character may act out the acronym by laughing with comical gestures or expressions and by typing "zzz" another character may fall asleep with a dramatic flourish.
At launch, the SuperBuddy cast will include more than 50 original icons, from animals to people to funny objects, with different moods, personalities and traits, including "Walrus" with a strong, deep voice that's tinged with a lisp because of his long tusks, and "Bug" who has chronic allergies and wheezes with a high-pitched nasal voice. Members will need to upgrade to AOL 9.0 Optimized to see and share SuperBuddy icons.
SuperBuddy icons are part of a suite of new instant messaging and personalized expression features in AOL 9.0 Optimized designed to make it even more fun to be online and communicate with friends and family. Along with the new SuperBuddy icons, the AOL service makes it easy for members to combine thousands of other Buddy icons with IM wallpaper, custom smileys, and sound effects to customize their own online expressions.
To mark the iconic
status of AOL's SuperBuddy icons, two special celebrity icons will be
introduced this summer. Ben Stiller, star of the upcoming feature film
Starsky and Hutch, and Star Jones, host of ABC's The View,
will be the first celebrities ever to be immortalized as animated SuperBuddy
icons when AOL launches its first gallery of animated icons. A more complete
celebrity edition is in development for later in the year.
”On AOL, Buddy icons are already so popular they've become an online
buzz indicator of what's hot," said David Gang, Executive Vice President
for AOL Products, for America Online. "Our members change icon expressions
based on their moods and opinions, or as fans of favorite sports teams
and music artists. Now, with AOL 9.0 Optimized, we're supercharging instant
messaging with a special cast of SuperBuddy icons together with a suite
of instant messaging features to make it fun to be online, express yourself
and communicate with friends and family."
The popularity of instant messaging has skyrocketed over the past few years. Each day, more than a billion IM's are sent all over the world. As instant messaging continues to grow, there's a rising trend among online users who have embraced the ability to personalize their messages through the use of icons, sounds, smileys and wallpaper. An AOL Instant Messaging Trends survey released today, conducted in partnership with Opinion Research Corp. from May 30th through June 9th, revealed that three-quarters (76%) of Internet users use instant messaging. In addition it showed that of the nearly 60% of respondents who customize their instant messaging applications, 85% say that buddy icons are the most common ways that they personalize messages.
AOL SuperBuddy icons were created much in the same way as today's full length, feature-quality animated films, but customized to be delivered within the medium of instant messaging. Artists began with a hand drawn sketch that's fed into special software to transform the design into 3-D models, which are animated, given sound and compressed to play on AOL 9.0 Optimized through dial-up or the AOL® for Broadband service.
Each SuperBuddy icon has a unique graphical design and its own distinct personality. They express themselves through more than 20 different animations and sound effects, triggered in response to more than 75 of the most common chat phrases, abbreviated "text speak" and smileys that people use to instant message. AOL members can select a SuperBuddy icon that matches their own personality, mood and sense of humor.
Easy to use, SuperBuddy icons are seamlessly integrated in AOL 9.0 Optimized so that they come to life without requiring members to take any special action or learn anything new. The new icons reside in the instant message window, and even when a conversation is idle, the characters continue to "live and breathe" using ambient animations.
AOL 9.0 Optimized will also introduce new features that extend the capabilities of instant messaging and the Buddy List® feature - through voice, video clips, digital photos, file sharing and "bots" - providing a more buddy-centric experience through which members can easily and conveniently manage their own personal online network of friends, family members, colleagues and other contacts.
New instant messaging features in AOL 9.0 Optimized will include:
** Ability to Create Multiple Personalities Using My AOL® Expressions - members can store different sets of IM expressions and switch between them on the fly, even copy their friends' expressions. To find a look they want, members can now easily search the thousands of AOL buddy icons, sound effects, wallpaper motifs, AOL desktops and smileys; choose from a broader selection of One-Click Themes, or use the new “Randomize” feature for automatic choices. Members can also create a colorful text design for their Screen Name as it appears on other AOL members’ Buddy List® Feature;
** File Transfer - allows AOL members to share any number of files directly with an AOL or AOL® Instant Messenger™ service (AIM®) buddy without having to upload or download the file;
** AOL Talk - allows AOL members to conduct real-time voice conversations with other AOL and AIM users via instant messaging using a PC microphone or an Internet (USB) phone with other AOL and AIM users. This makes it possible to talk with friends and family around the world while continuing to remain online;
** AOL Video Messenger - allows members with webcams to capture a video clip with their webcam then send it to friends, family and other AOL members. If a member doesn't have a webcam, they can watch clips their friends send as well as select and send a prerecorded video clip from AOL's new Fun Clips library; Fun Clips add more personality to instant messages, letting members punctuate their conversations with short video segments that can be used to express a wide range of feelings.
** Instant Images - allows members to share digital pictures with friends and family directly through instant messages. Built-in integration with AOL's new You've Got Pictures® "My Picture Finder" makes it easy to quickly find and send pictures instantly through AOL 9.0 Optimized; and
** AOL IM Bots - through the ease and convenience of an instant message, AOL members can find Yellow Pages information; get instant stock quotes, news, movie listings, sports scores, weather and more simply by sending IMs to special automated Screen Names from any computer or wireless device. For example, by adding the screen name "AOLYellowPages" to their Buddy List®, AOL members can instantly begin interacting with the BOT to look up a business in their area and AOL Yellow Pages will deliver the results right to the user’s IM window or wireless device.
In addition, a new IM Catcher feature in AOL 9.0 Optimized will help members control "SpIM" (instant messaging spam). When activated, the IM Catcher feature will capture all instant messages sent from "unknown sources" into a small box in the corner of your screen. Rather than letting messages from people the member hasn't added to the Buddy List window pop up onscreen, members can capture the IMs all in one place and then decide if and when they want to view them -- or simply ignore them all together.
An electronic press kit on today's announcement, including results from the recent nationwide Instant Messaging Use survey and the upcoming launch of AOL 9.0 Optimized, can be found at www.aolepk.com/super_buddy.
About America Online, Inc.
America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: AOL). Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.
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