America Online Increases Weather Offerings as Interest Soars among Online Consumers.DULLES, Va. -- America Online See AOL. , Inc. --Expanded Agreement with The Weather Channel(R) --Delivers More Resources to AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. (R) for Broadband broadband Term describing the radiation from a source that produces a broad, continuous spectrum of frequencies (contrasted with a laser, which produces a single frequency or very narrow range of frequencies). and Dial-Up Subscribers and Netscape(R) Browser browser Software that allows a computer user to find and view information on the Internet. The first text-based browser for the World Wide Web became available in 1991; Web use expanded rapidly after the release in 1993 of a browser called Mosaic, which used Users --Both AOL(R) and weather.com(R) Experience Heavy Traffic Surrounding sur·round tr.v. sur·round·ed, sur·round·ing, sur·rounds 1. To extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle. 2. To enclose or confine on all sides so as to bar escape or outside communication. n. Hurricane Charley This article is about the Atlantic hurricane of 2004; for other storms named Hurricane Charley, see Hurricane Charley (disambiguation). Hurricane Charley was the third named storm, the second hurricane, and the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. With hurricane season Hurricane season refers to a period in a year when hurricanes usually form. For more information see: Tropical cyclone#Times of formation. For a lists of past seasons, see:
Evidence points to the Internet as a critical source of weather-related information. In response to Hurricane Charley, both AOL and weather.com saw significant traffic surges. On Friday, August 13, AOL News' package on Hurricane Charley was viewed more than one million times, with live video of ABC News
ABC News is a division of American television and radio network ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its current president is David Westin. Now's coverage of the storm streamed nearly 350,000 times--traffic levels exceeding those seen during the Democratic National Convention. That week on AOL(R) Search, searches for the term "hurricane" increased 20-fold. Likewise, weather.com set a record for daily pageviews on August 13--serving 66.4 million pageviews to 6.3 million unique users, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the company's internal reports. The site began seeing traffic increases as early as August 11, with more than twice the number of average visitors and more than 1000 percent more video streams served than on a normal day. Checking weather is among the top online activities of AOL members, ranking just behind e-mail, getting news updates and conducting research. (2) Weather also ranked among the top five growth categories online between April and May 2004. (3) "Getting weather updates online is an extremely popular activity among our members and among the online population overall," said Carlos Silva Carlos Silva (born April 23, 1979 in Bolívar, Venezuela) is a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who has played for the Minnesota Twins since 2004. Previously, he played for the Philadelphia Phillies (2002-03). He bats and throws right handed. , Senior Vice President, News and Sports for America Online. "These enhancements to AOL Weather will make it even easier for our members to be in-the know about the forecast in their area and wherever their travels take them." "We're happy to be expanding our successful five-year relationship with America Online to be the provider of AOL's weather content," said Jody Fennell, vice president of business development for The Weather Channel Interactive. "This is a win-win for both companies--giving weather.com content even greater reach, and providing AOL's subscribers with unparalleled weather-related news and updates on-demand." Highlights of the recent enhancements to AOL Weather include: --More local forecast video: AOL Weather now provides AOL for Broadband members in more than 100 cities on-demand, local meteorologist videos from The Weather Channel. These videos are now updated twice daily, increased from once daily. --Additional national and regional forecast video: New weather video available to AOL for Broadband subscribers includes Storm Watch, highlighting areas in the nation with storm warnings; Tropical Update, the forecast for tropical regions around the world; Weekly Planner, the national forecast for the week; Weekend Outlook, the national weekend forecast; and Travelwise, updates on travel conditions across the country. --Access via AOL.com: Coming soon, AOL for Broadband members will have the added convenience of accessing video from The Weather Channel while they're away from home or at work through AOL.com. --One-stop access to weather information: The enhanced AOL Weather provides a comprehensive weather destination, so members can find the information they're seeking within the AOL service, rather than being directed to outside sites. Weather information is also integrated throughout the AOL service in relevant areas such as AOL(R) News and AOL(R) CityGuide. --Expansion to additional U.S. and International services: Under the expanded agreement, The Weather Channel content will be made available to AOL(R) Latino and AOL(R) International services, including AOL(R) Canada, AOL(R) UK and AOL(R) Latin America's services in Brazil and Mexico. Shawn Hardin, Senior Vice President, Product & Programming, AOL for Broadband, added, "We've seen that among AOL for Broadband members, video from The Weather Channel ranks among the most popular of all the video we offer. The expansion of our agreement will make even more of this video available to our members, thus enhancing the value of AOL for Broadband in their daily lives." These new offerings complement the existing suite of weather content available to AOL members, including weather forecasts for more than 98,000 national and international locations, updated five times a day. Specific weather resources include detailed 48-hour and seven-day forecasts, local and regional Doppler radar A system for measuring speed that is based on the Doppler effect. It is used in police radar systems as well as for measuring the velocity of hurricanes and tornadoes. See Doppler effect. and satellite maps, and much more. AOL members can also access an array of weather content through mobile devices such as cellular phones, PDA's or pagers, including current conditions and five-day forecasts. AOL Weather ranks among the top online weather destinations, reaching more than 9 million unique visitors A count of how many different people access a Web site. For example, if a user leaves and comes back to the site five times during the measurement period, that person is counted as one unique visitor, but would count as five "user sessions. in July 2004. (3) In addition, starting this week, Desktop Weather by The Weather Channel, the company's convenient desktop application, will be available at no charge through the Netscape 7.2 browser. The Weather Channel will also distribute a co-branded Netscape browser See Netscape. via weather.com and will promote the browser on-air. About The Weather Channel The Weather Channel, a 24-hour weather network, is seen in over 87 million U.S. households. Its Web site, weather.com, attracts 27 million users each month and is currently ranked the 11th most popular Web site by Nielsen//NetRatings. The Weather Channel also operates Weatherscan, a 24-hour, all-local weather network distributed to almost 8 million households, The Weather Channel Radio Network, The Weather Channel Newspaper Services and is the leading weather information provider for emerging technologies. This includes broadband services See broadband and broadband service provider. , interactive television applications and wireless weather products. The Weather Channel is owned by Landmark Communications Landmark Communications is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia and specializing in cable television, broadcast television, print publishing, and internet publishing. , Inc., a Norfolk, VA-based, privately held media company. About America Online, Inc. America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia Dulles, Virginia is an unincorporated census-designated place located in Loudoun County, Virginia, part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. The headquarters of AOL, Orbital Sciences Corporation and ODIN technologies and the former headquarters of MCI Inc. are located in Dulles. , America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services. (1) Source: Nielsen//NetRatings (2) Source: Nielsen//NetRatings @plan, Summer 2004 (3) Source: comScore MediaMetrix |
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