Now on AOL, pay your bills altogether online
With more people turning to the internet to pay their bills, America Online has launched an online bill payment service. Yodlee Inc., which allows its users to compile and organize account information from 2,500 billers using a product called BillDirect, is the backbone of AOL's new service. AOL is the first company to use BillDirect, though some banks may also move to the Yodlee service. AOL explains that customers prefer paying bills at the web sites of individual billers so they can pay at the last minute, receive credit immediately and avoid late fees. However, paying at each company’s site means having to remember multiple usernames and passwords, depending on each site’s number and letter minimums and maximums. AOL's free bill payment service would store this information so that when a user receives an email indicating that a bill is due, clicking on a link would take him directly to the biller's web page to pay it, initiating a transfer from the user's bank account to the biller's.

NYT locates funny bone, allowing satire to stay
As it turns out, the New York Times does have a sense of humor. Robert Cox's TheNationalDebate.com, whose “Columnist Corrections” section mirrors the appearance of the NYTimes.com web site, did not lose internet service this week. The Times, after noting the addition of a bold-faced disclaimer at the top of the section, dropped its objection. Times lawyer Nancy Richman formally withdrew a claim of copyright infringement, saying that the addition of the disclaimer ensured that readers would not be confused. The disclaimer was actually not added by Cox himself but by sympathetic web sites that picked up the parody after Cox pulled it from TheNationalDebate.com last Thursday. Cox may pursue further clarification under digital copyright law.

Get 'Star Search' winner's single at Napster
If you missed their performances on CBS, and judging from the ratings you did, the “Star Search” adult singer finalists will soon be offering singles on Napster.com, which marks the first time that music from a televised singing competition will be available for download. The singles have been available for 99 cents through CBS.com using Napster technology prior ever since the “Star Search” finale Saturday. The winner of the competition received $100,000 and a contract with A&M Records. 

A daily ABC soap fix through text message
Didn’t see the big fire on “General Hospital” coming? Soap Confidential is giving ABC soap fans sneak preview information from their favorite soap characters through a premium text messaging service launched Monday. Fans who sign up for Soap Confidential will receive multiple messages per week from popular characters about their thoughts on what is happening on any or all three of the shows: "All My Children," "General Hospital" and "One Life to Live.” ABC Daytime is partnering again with Telenor, the first company to provide premium text messaging services in the United States, with whom ABC previously worked for “All My Children's” Sexiest Man in America Contest. Fans cast more than 2.5 million votes online and through text messages, also submitting more than 2,000 unsolicited text messages during the contest to share their thoughts about the show.