AOL has always been an easy target for ridicule. So, when I found out today that AOL was trying to take on gmail with a new public beta mail service, I jumped at the opprotunity to test it out.

I was disappointed to find out that AOL did a number of things right with their new service; in many ways, I'd say its superior to gmail. Namely, AOL's webmail wins hands down in terms of:

• Overall user experience
• Overall design

However, even by the most charitable measures, AOL's webmail still loses to google. The first reason being:

• It took a full 35 seconds to load their mail application with a broadband connection. This is in comparison gmail's dandy 2 second loading time.

The second reason AOL mail loses can be seen in these two screenshots. Both of which are of the first thing a user sees when they sign onto the respective services:

AOLMAIL

GMAIL

These screenshots speak 1000's of words. The main focus is the primary differentiator between screenshots. Gmail's focus is -- well -- your email box. AOL's is their own commercial content, and their ads. Indeed the slow load times for AOL's mail service are -- in likelyhood -- entirely due to their promiscious sprinklings of shockwave, and flash ADs. And bear in mind the service is SLOW even with broadband.

Its clear to me that there are some progressive voices trying to make a difference at AOL. Their work is evident in the service's superior interface, and design. Sadly, however, their work is more than cancelled out by the old voices of AOL: the voices who think that users will put up with giant intrusive ads, slow load times, and being bombarded with content which has neither relevence to their goals, nor interests.

Everyone deserves a second chance -- even AOL (that was painful for me to write). But in technology, as well as in life, second chances are usually wasted. Often, these chances are wasted for no better reason than someone felt the path to failure needed to be tried again -- for the 4th time. I suspect AOL's web service serves as  yet another tragic example of the definition of insanity.