AOL has a new product they are readying in up in an attempt to revolutionize our plain, ordinary email client. AOL is clearly stating here that with all the different kinds of communication today that are available just on the web like social networks, email, and IM, we need a place to control it all. They are 100% right. That's where Project Phoenix comes in.

Project Phoenix is going to be a new type of email client presented by AOL Mail that will let you see it all and update it all. The Quick Bar will be a bar at the top of the page that will let you start anything. You can send a quick text message from it, start an email, post a status to your social network of choice, and send an instant message. In the middle of the page will quite obviously be all of your emails, but to the right and left of that are two very new features that look promising.

On the left, you will control all of your inboxes. That's right, you'll be able to fully set up all of your email accounts to be viewed in AOL Mail. I'm talking AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and more. Just that feature alone could make Phoenix a success. On the right sidebar, you'll be able to see all of your media content in a glance -- from the meaningful photos to worthless shit -- that's usually buried in all those emails. All your photos, files, maps, and links will be available here.

Project Phoenix is currently available by invite-only and it seems like AOL is definitely serious about revolutionizing email. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think AOL knows exactly what they are doing this time. You can sign up for an invite right here or watch a nifty demo below.