AOL launches Red blogs

AOL introduced a new weblog service with advanced privacy features aimed at teens.

The Red blogs home page contains a search box for keyword search of the Red blogs community, editors’ picks, and a daily top five weblogs listing.

According to the new AOL(R) RED(TM)/Digital Marketing Services survey, when teens are asked to choose whether they prefer to share their innermost feelings with their parents or a blog, they are split with roughly half (51%) selecting their parents and 49% choosing a blog.

It seems very odd to me to name a parental control service a “red” service. I have no idea how they arrived at that name, but when I see the word “red” mixed with controlling features I think of communist strong-arm regimes such as those led by Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao. (not the opinion of Technorati)

It is also interesting that AOL is now using the term “blog” instead of “journal” at least in this use case.