The measures taken include identifying an AOL message with a blue icon in the mail inbox, a blue border around it and an official AOL seal in the bottom left-hand corner.
It is hoped that these features will prevent incidents such as that reported last week where hackers managed to send e-mail that appeared to be legitimately from AOL with the result that they gained access to secure personal data on some AOL members.
Even so, AOL maintain that it has been developing this idea for a while and that it is not simply a response to these or similar events. Although its action indicates its concern over fraudulent e-mail activity, some critics have warned that its response may not be as effective as hoped.
Frank Price, an analyst at Forrester Research noted that “it isn’t a necessary assurance of security in and of itself... once [users] are geared to an idea that this colour scheme means it is safe, if someone can replicate it, they have made it worse. That is the risk of these sorts of iconic solutions”.