• TechCrunch, Friday, May 6, 2011 12:24 PM

In its own words, AOL is close to launching a "shiny new video chat product dubbed AV," reports, citing an internal company memo. "And it actually looks pretty good," according to the blog, which is actually owned by AOL. "It's video chat, but super-simple." As you see for yourself here, consumers don't need an account to use the service, nor anything else except Flash installed on their computer. Aside from video chatting -- with up to four people at once -- users can text chat, which the service overlays in a nice way, writes TechCrunch.

The news came in an internal email from AOL's Head of AIM Products Jason Shellen. He believes the service "represents a lot of hard work by the AIM team over the last few months." He also says that it's the first of "several" new AIM launches coming soon, all will be Web-focused. "This is the first of several substantial new AIM launches and the first to represent our shift in focus to better web software," Shellen writes. More broadly, TechCrunch thinks AOL is smart to be investing in the video chat, which, which increasingly crowded, is still largely unclaimed territory.

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