Its subscription business in decline, America Online Inc. is launching yet another product on the open Web: a free, ad-supported e-mail service tied to its instant-messaging platform.

Users of AOL Instant Messenger will be able to send and receive mail with “aim.com” addresses using their existing AIM screen names.

Initially, users will need the latest version of AIM software, available as a “beta” test download for Windows computers beginning Wednesday. Ultimately, they’ll be able to send and receive mail from any Web browser.

Each account comes with 2 gigabytes of storage – comparable with Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Gmail and more generous than the free offerings from Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Hotmail and even AOL’s flagship subscription service.

Source: Excite

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