AOL Beta launches, blatant rip-off of Yahoo [UPDATE]

(Credit: CNET Networks)

So we've seen copycats and similarities floating around the internets before. Missing vowels in site names (understandable, domain names are getting pricey), reflections, gradient backgrounds, rounded corners. You name it we've seen it. What we haven't seen in a while is a copycat page design on this scale. AOL's new Beta page looks mighty familiar. So familiar, one of our readers sent us a tip, pointing out that it looks dangerously like Yahoo's home page. The real question here, is how does a company with so much money to throw around skimp on something as important as page design?

Yahoo's homepage. AOL's new Beta page. You be the judge (larger version here)

[Thanks Scott!]

Update: Added animated comparison GIF.

[Ben Feldman]

What!? You've gotta be kidding me!

That's the most blatant rip off I've ever seen! It's almost as bad as the Yahoo!/Google IE7 download page. In fact it may be worse...

This is literally the same thing, with the AOL logo and a slightly different color. Heck, the navigation bar icons even look similar.

I'm sorry, that's just sad, even for AOL. How in the world do they think they can get away with that without someone noticing?

[Tertius]

Ehhh, Yahoo isn't that original either.

Oddly enough that's what I thought a year or so ago when Yahoo's homepage was still Yahoo Mail/Yahoo 360 beta, "Hmm, looks like MSN mail beta (when live.com was still start.com), which was a ripoff (if MS can rip itself off) of OWA for Exchange 2003.
To be fair, though (and trust me I have no love for AOL) AOL has had those Mail, Money, IM, etc. buttons percolating in their beta for a very loooong time now.
Anyhoo, wasn't Hotmail THE webmail wunderkind before its assimilation by MS right after Win95/MSN was released?

[JeffPom]

Holy Crap!

Wow. I think it's even worse than the IE7 Yahoo/Google debacle.

This is not a one time thing - these pages are front pages for many...

The question is - are front pages copyrighted like a book/tv show/any other media? or are they like other products - software, cars, etc... where similar products are made that look a lot alike, but are two different brands???

[freepims]

Is everyone @ AOL on drugs?

Its past evident that they want attention, but more negative, I can?t believe it! I think they like being known as brainless.

[KroniXxX]

How SAD is AOL!!!???

When you think about how long AOL has been around(in comparison to Yahoo!) the situation almost looks like an older company copied off of a younger companies "exam" outta desperation because "time was almost up" and they'd "fail" if it was turned in INCOMPLETE!! Out of all the BIG ISP companies out there and AOL being the LAST to come up with this type of beta you would think that they would have taken a look at everyone elses "Work" and know what NOT to DUPLICATE. It might have meant a kind of redemption for AOL to do something original seeing as how they've been around a lot longer then most.

[wdblackman]

Here's another one very similar

After seeing these two sites, it reminded me about the Bellsouth/ATT home site as well. This one is not as bad as the AOL site, but it is very similar. Check it out.

http://home.bellsouth.net

[waynoworlater]

My Theory...

AOL knows that Yahoo is one of the number one default home pages, and know maybe that they'll get confused and use their's instead...[http://no AOL, we aren't that dumb...|http://no AOL, we aren't that dumb...]