While Microsoft spins it out, AOL plans to leverage its AIM network to build a social network. More from David Card:

But like I said, the best hook may be "snaggable" modules. AOL's version of widgets (little applets that are essentially a user interface on top of an RSS feed) are AIM Page modules. But unlike Yahoo's and Apple's, they aren't meant to live on your desktop. Like Microsoft Gadgets, the're designed to be housed on a page. But they're also meant to be super-subscribe-able, syndicate-able, even paste-able (Think YouTube or Flickr vis a vis MySpace). They're very lightweight and rendered by browsers.

AOL will implement a lot of its own content and services as modules, and is showing modules from Amazon, Flickr, Netflix, and YouTube. AOL described "programming your own TV network" by creating some intros and outros, and snagging some show content from In2TV.

And AOL says it doesn't want to compete so much with MySpace as let people publish to it. IM was the first social network, AOL reasons, but it was based on text messaging alone. Now it's time to take that big existing network and use it for more.

Ultimately, re-packaging AOL as modules is nothing less than an effort to create a modern network that's not dependent on a homepage, let alone a walled garden. This is truly visionary, especially coming from the company that still owns the biggest share of US users' time spent online. (See Figure 1.) But subscribing and linking should also bring traffic back in. (See Figure 10 "deconstructing your Website".) AOL claims AIM is already one of the top five traffic drivers for AOL.com, and one of the top three for its News, Music, Movies (Moviefone), and RED (teens) properties.

This sounds like it has benefitted from some of Marc Canter's blueprints. Connecting the customizability of a MyYahoo with the social network that is AIM seems like a winning idea.