AOL has signed a large advertising deal with Verizon Communications making them sole representatives of their online advertising inventory.

Owned by Time Warner, AOL recently underwent a large restructuring of its organization and its Platform A advertising unit is seen as the centerpiece for their future business.

The agreement comes at a time when Time Warner is engaged in talks to combine AOL with Yahoo!, to rival Microsoft's bid for the company, reports Reuters.

AOL has launched a new open source mobile platform which will be made available to developers in the coming months.

The company hopes that the platform will help stimulate innovation by providing developers with ready access to the tools and source codes they need to build and distribute applications across major mobile systems.

According to AOL, the new Open Mobile Platform is based on proven technology acquired by the Time Warner-owned company and already deployed across more than 150 different handsets on carrier networks in the US.

AOL has revealed what the most popular search terms in the US were over the last year.

The company compiled data to determine the people, places and topics that received the largest volume of search queries on AOL Search and via mobile devices.

For the second straight year, weather was the most popular general term on AOL Search. Meanwhile, WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, the Apple iPhone and Britney Spears appeared at the top of the news, gadget and celebrity search lists.

American Idol remained the most-searched for TV show and Hillary Clinton topped the politicians list.