AOL was never to me any good at being the best but when I found out about this piece of freeware I was absolutely amazed. It blends, instant messaging, internet, e-mail and other online multimedia activities into one smooth application. It has a sleek modern interface previously called AOL OpenRide. The screen is seperated into 4 tabs, 2 on each side which are: People, Mail, Browser, and Media Center. It makes life much easier as there are less broswers and applications to have open. I myself have around 6 browsers open with 2-3 tabs on each so I dearly need this which is why I'm currently downloading it as I write this.
The actual Helix does not look like that of it's predecessor but it is in blue and has the same kind of features. On the web there is a drop down menu but unlike most systems where you have to click group, this let's you just hover over: Web, Email (for different accounts), and other media. There are other things you can do on this application including News, Finance, Radio, Video, Music, Mapquest, Safety and Security Centre, Games, Weather, Sports, Travel and more. Its a very pleasing interface and I do recommend it as an alternative to IE7 and Firefox but since it's in Beta there are a few kinks to work out plus security issues.