AOL has redesigned its home page. You may not see it yet, because it’s being gradually rolled out, but it’s accessible at this link (kill the cookies if you’re from outside of the US and it keeps redirecting you to the UK version of the site). You can see a comparison between the new version (above) and the old version of AOL below.

The most important features, besides the slightly improved design and a blueish scheme that replaces the earthy tones on the old version of the site, are the social integration tools. First of all, under the “My Stuff” menu in the top right area of the page, AOL now offers a lot more than email, weather, pictures and the AOL toolbar. Now, you can slide it for more options, which include movies, horoscope, music and social news from Propeller.

Furthermore, a great emphasis is put on social networks. The “My Networks” area located on the right is essentially a built-in widget from which you can access your Facebook, MySpace, AIM, Bebo and Twitter accounts. Nifty, and a great way to keep the visitors on your page instead of having them run off directly to these sites.

As far as blunders go, I can’t help but notice that the largest image on the new site, when I opened it, was an unbelievably ugly wrinkle-remover ad. Call me old fashioned, but when you have a slick new design up, you probably don’t want your visitors to puke because of a scary ad. Other than that, AOL has done well with the makeover; it’s not a radically different design, but the new social features are definitely a good move which will keep some traffic on the site.