Sarah, I don't know about AOL, but my mail program (Eudora) can read as a link anything following the text http:// If you sent me mail with just http:// it would activate my browser, but not go anywhere. If you send me an e-mail with http://www.mudcat.org it will be an active link to here, you don't need to do anything else to make it work for me.

In an older version of Eudora this worked, but I had to know it & run my mouse over the URL to get the mouse pointer to link. In newer versions the link is highlighted & obvious. I just click & it will open my browser if it's not, and take me to the site. If someone sends an e-mail with just www.mudcat.org, it's not an active link. In the earliest browsers I would have had to type the http:// then copy & paste the rest. Now it works just as it is, Netscape or Explorer are able to assume the http:// for the most part. I once had trouble with a URL that did not start with WWWW.

Clear as mud?