AOL.com is one of the world’s most visited websites, with traffic arriving from around the globe, though most notably from the United States - the company does stand for America Online, after all! AOL is a mainstream brand, famous for its Internet services and once dominant suite of software.

AOL.com was almost untouchable for several years, using its unique form of closed community to offer services and information that could pen in the many customers. While no longer enjoying the same market dominance that captured it 30 million customers, AOL remains an important Internet brand with a website seen by many experts as holding untapped potential.

AOL.com is similar to the Yahoo website in many ways, with both companies competing for much of the same web traffic. A look at the website and you’ll be confronted by a swarm of headlining stories that tie in closely with current affairs. AOL hasn’t quite held on to Yahoo in the viral buzz stakes, but you’ll still find plenty of unique and interesting content to keep you coming back. AOL is geared towards the more educated Internet users. While Yahoo is keen to splash its homepage with games and networking, AOL focuses on the latest political wranglings with up to date info on the stock markets and so on.

AOL.com provides all the standard search features that you would expect from a website that has been targeted by Microsoft in several takeover bids. With search powered by Google, you can rely on high quality search and image results. AOL has also established a good standard of local searching with a further tool allowing you to scour the shopping marketplace for best deals. AOL.com, as you’d expect, focuses on American consumers but the company has also released international websites that operate in the same manner as franchises.

AOL.com differs from its rivals in the sense that it isn’t afraid to offer direct linkage to competitive sites that could be seen as a threat. The AOL homepage advertises Yahoo and Google side by side, next to its own AOL Mail service.

If there’s one asset AOL.com does have that the competitors would love to snap up, it’s undoubtedly the messaging interface known as AIM. This remains the second most popular messenger in the world and has a huge market share. With traffic incoming every day from AOL’s instant message client, users can find themselves linked up to all of the latest news from a location that’s convenient to them.

The AOL website is designed to satisfy the Web 2.0 digital age, without being fully editable in the same manner as Google Homepages. You can select your own colour scheme and adjust the page as you like. But despite this, AOL.com still manages to retain its clean, understated theme. If you’re looking for a news portal that has everything you need to know, you can do worse than AOL.com. And as the battle for web traffic rages on, AOL is now far less picky about closing its doors to non-customers. You don’t have to be with AOL to enjoy the features and reporting that it offers.