WebProNews

AOL has introduced Socialthing a new platform that connects social networks with other Web sites.

When adding Socialthing to a Web site a basic navigation bar appears at the bottom of the page. Visitors to a Socialthing-enabled Web site get a unified sign-on allowing them to chat and send instant messages to others. They can also syndicate content from other social networks including AOL's Bebo, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Joanna Shields

Privacy settings for sharing content allow the user to be in control of publishing activity. When an action is taken on a site, Socialthing asks for the user's permission to publish their action into a Lifestream that is shared with their friends.

"Socialthing turns any media into social media, making it easy for people to share their experiences in real time with their friends, wherever they are on the Web," said Joanna Shields, President of AOL People Networks.

"Built on AOL's best-of-breed messaging technology, unrivaled social networking and media aggregation tools, Socialthing enables users to converse, connect and broadcast messages and their activities to friends on the Web."

Last week AOL launched Socialthing on The Boot, its online country music destination and plans to roll it out to its movie blog, Cinematical in the coming weeks.

MediaGlow, AOL's centralized publishing unit is in the process of launching Socialthing across its network of more than 75 sites that reach 181 million users globally.