The new e-mail app — currently called "Project Phoenix" — is in beta testing with just a few users, but it will launch to the public next year sometime. It's part of a recent spate of AOL moves to reinvigorate a once-great brand that has recently been eclipsed by newer ventures like Google and Facebook.
The company recently launched a Groupon-like group-buying site and acquired the popular tech blog TechCrunch; those are just a couple of its recent moves. The webmail redesign is a particularly notable move because of that 45% figure we just mentioned.
According to CNET, the new design "looks a lot like Gmail" with some extra features added in, such as a quick bar for easily writing and sending short e-mails. There's also a new Twitter-like side bar called "Smart View" for previewing the contents of e-mails and their attachments, as well as maps, conversation threads and other data.