Locked in a skirmish with Microsoft and Yahoo! in the lucrative instant messaging space, America Online launched a new version of its AIM application, touting it as "the coolest AIM ever!" but some of its biggest fans aren't too happy with the upgrade.

The AIM 4.7 software includes teen-targeted bells and whistles like buddy image rating and a set of 'Net-based features that promote content from the AOL Time Warner empire, but the upgrade's loudest feature -- an AIM Today pop-up window that resembles a personalized information portal -- is also its most annoying.

"(The) 'AIM Today' feature annoys me more than anything else. It pops up a few seconds after I sign on to AIM, and there is nothing on it that I like anyway. There is also no way to set my preferences to get rid of it," 15-year-old Nicole Gose of Honolulu, Hawaii said in an e-mail complaint.

"I'm sorry I downloaded the upgrade. I would rather have the version...Now, I'm stuck with this. If I were to uninstall AIM 4.7 and go back to the older version, I would lose my buddy list settings."

The teenager's complaint mirrors those of many AIM users who are connecting on dial-up modems. The 'AIM Today' pop-up window, with a heavy dose of rich-media ads and graphics, tend to slow connections and cause major headaches for users.

But, for AOL, the need to jazz up its application to stem the flow of users migrating to competitors Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.

It is clear AOL is positioning its IM system as a full-fledged communications platform for content from the vast AOL Time Warner empire. Links from the 'AIM Today' pop-up portal send users to AOL's properties on the Netscape site.

It also points fans to AOL's subscription-based Spinner radio service and e-commerce links to million of Web storefronts. The pop-up can be personalized like any other portal to feed weather reports, sports scores, news headlines and a search engine.

To prod users into recommending friends to the IM service, the new AIM upgrade automatically embeds an icon on the computer's desktop, offering a free trial for its ISP service. Downloading AIM 4.7 also automatically adds AOL's Web site to a user's "favorites" folder in the Web browser.