FanHouse Scores an EPpy

AOL Sports' FanHouse received an EPpy Award from Editor and Publisher and Mediaweek for Best Sports Blog. See all the winners and read more about the awards.

AOL Launches New Parenting Site

AOL introduced a new parenting channel, ParentDish.com, which features a mix of video, photo galleries, polls and blog posts. Celebrity contributors provide content focused on issues families with kids of all ages face today. The site will feature regular posts from parenting expert Rachel Campos-Duffy, as well as promotional content from MomLogic.com.

AOL Gives Players the Chance to Ante Up

Games.com will award six seats to this summer’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Now through June 15, players can compete in six No-Limit Texas Hold’Em tournaments on Games.com’s World Series of Poker hub, in partnership with Harrah Entertainment. The six top players will win seats to the tournament in Las Vegas. Get the details.

Vote Now for CityGuide's City's Best 2008

AOL announced 8,000 nominees for City’s Best 2008, which celebrates the best in local dining and nightlife across the country. From now until July 10, consumers can vote for their favorite venues in categories such as Best Burgers, Best Romantic Restaurants, Best Sports Bars and many more. Localized categories, such as Best Delis in New York, are also up for the vote.

Lynda Clarizio Joins Ad Council Board of Directors

Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A, is joining the Ad Council's Board of Directors. “AOL has been a wonderful supporter of the Ad Council." said Peggy Conlon, President & CEO of The Advertising Council. "Lynda’s invaluable insight and experience will help further extend the reach and the impact of our critical messages.” AOL works with the Ad Council to deliver public service ads, helping raise awareness of critical social issues among millions of online consumers.

Truveo Localizes its Search Results

Truveo has introduced new localized ranking algorithms for its 17 international portals. This relevancy algorithm looks at the language and country of origin before delivering search results. For example, a search in the U.S. for "football" will turn up different videos than the same query in the U.K. Read more in the release.

AOL on the Mac

AOL officially launched the new AOL Desktop for Mac, the latest in a series of enhanced Mac-compatible applications and products. The new Mac downloadable software was built from the ground-up for Mac users. To read more, please visit the Mac@AOL blog.

AOL to Offer Free Phone Calls on Mother’s Day Weekend

AOL's AIM Call Out service will be free this Mother's Day weekend, May 10th - 11th. Users can make as many calls as they want to more than 200 countries, using a headset, a microphone and speakers, or phone-to-phone.

Users must set up an AIM Call Out account and add at least $5 in non-refundable call credit to get started. Users can then make as many calls as they want to more than 200 countries and will still have $5 to spend at the end of the free calls weekend.

AOL Sports and EA Team Up for EA Sports Gameshow

AOL Sports and Electronic Arts are partnering to produce EA Sports Gameshow, a live-hosted, interactive online sports trivia game. "EA Sports GameShow provides an opportunity for sports enthusiasts to interact in real time in a fun and competitive environment, and provides advertisers a chance to reach targeted consumers," said Derrick Heggans, General Manager, AOL Sports. Read more in the release.

Kevin Conroy Assumes Marketing Duties at AOL

Kevin Conroy is expanding his role to include AOL’s marketing initiatives as EVP, AOL Products and Marketing. He will continue to report to AOL President and COO Ron Grant.

“Kevin is a seasoned, results-oriented pro who has an extensive marketing background, having served as Chief Marketing Officer at BMG Entertainment before coming to AOL," said Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO of AOL. "I’m confident that Kevin will continue to propel our marketing efforts forward, building our brands, products, key verticals and our social media business, and driving results for the business.”

AOL Receives Green IT Award

AOL was honored at the 2008 Uptime Institute Green Enterprise IT Awards in Orlando, where the company received an award for being one of the pioneers in energy-efficiency improvements in data center operations.

The Uptime Institute is a leading research-based think-tank and corporate advisory on the business and technology issues related to critical computing environment reliability and energy efficiency.

TACODA to Be Available Across Platform-A Network

Platform-A is incorporating TACODA's suite of behavioral targeting solutions across its entire network. The technology helps advertisers target relevant messages to appropriate audiences. Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A, said that  "Our mission at Platform-A is to become the most effective and efficient marketplace for the buying and selling of online advertising, and this is an important milestone for that."

AOL / Zogby Poll: Americans Have Less Money for Summer Fun

A new survey from AOL Travel and Zogby International finds that 57% of Americans have less money to spend on summer vacations this year. In addition to looking for ways to save on travel costs, 33% plan to stay with friends or family. Surprisingly, 69% of those surveyed said fuel prices won't influence where they plan to vacation.

Deutsche Telekom Picks ADTECH to Serve Online Ads

Platform-A's ADTECH has been selected by Deutsche Telekom as the exclusive provider in Germany of online ad serving for its digital arm, InteractiveMedia. Deutsche Telekom is Germany's largest telecommunications company and the parent company of T-Mobile in the U.S. Read the release.

Six Consecutive Months of Growth

AOL sites hit an all-time high in March after six consecutive months of growth, according to comScore Media Metrix. Page views on AOL’s programming sites grew 28% compared with the previous month, and are up 35% year over year. Many of the key verticals were redesigned this year, and many new sites were launched, including Asylum, Spinner, WalletPop and PopEater.com.

According to Bill Wilson, Executive Vice Presdient of Vertical Programming, “Our strong growth is a direct result of rebuilding each and every one of our vertical web sites over the past 12 months."