"The user doesn't have to learn anything new," said Derick Mains, an AOL spokesman.

"It's basically the house that our members built," said Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman.

An AOL spokesman said today that the Microsoft plans showed that the future lay in broadband services and enhanced content features.

"This is great news for us and validation of our strategy during the past year," said an AOL spokesman, Andrew Weinstein.

An AOL spokesman said the policy would end more than half of its pop-up ads, including those for sales of merchandise.

An AOL spokesman called the issue an unintentional glitch.

An AOL spokesman said that the company had not ruled out further layoffs but that none were in current plans.

"We still view the buddy list as something completely private," said Derick Mains, an AOL spokesman.

An AOL spokesman declined to comment on any potential layoffs.

Other measures are in the works, said Andrew Weinstein, an AOL spokesman.