These days, AOL headquarters in Dulles, Virginia, looks like a fortress preparing for battle. The walls are plastered with posters inspired from two world wars. Uncle Sam tells employees, "I Want You to download AOL 8.0 TODAY. Do it for our members." Rosie the Riveter tells workers, "We Can Do It! But we need your help. Download AOL 8.0 today. Do it for our members." Tonight's "Tech Live" takes you there and finds out what's behind the call to action.

The redesigned posters are meant to remind AOL employees that a lot is riding on the October launch of AOL's new version 8.0 -- not the least of which is getting the struggling Internet service provider, the nation's largest, back on track after the burst of the tech bubble.

"It's the biggest release in the history of the company," said David Gang, AOL's executive vice president for product marketing. "There's more changes in 8.0 than any other product that we've ever shipped in the history of AOL."

New features

AOL promises that 8.0, which is still in beta testing, will have a lot of new bells and whistles -- literally. One of the new features is a catcall that subscribers can send to friends to make AOL Instant Messaging more fun and creative.

Other new features include more online radio stations, more e-commerce tools, better broadband capabilities, better parental controls, more email tools to block out junk mail, and lots of new icons, wallpaper, and sounds for making instant messaging more expressive. There's even a new loud "belch" sound, which kids will likely use to excess.

"There's very much a focus on continuing to improve the usability of being online," Gang said. "And then when you take a look at the other things we've done, they've really been around increased usage."

Analysts say one of the company's challenges has been to increase the amount of time subscribers stay online in each visit, now about 70 minutes. They also view 8.0 as critical to increasing now-sluggish subscriber growth at the online service, to retaining existing customers, and ultimately to helping boost AOL Time Warner stock, which has plunged more than 80 percent from its high, mainly over concerns about the troubles at AOL.

Much depends on 8.0

"They have 35 million customers," said Scott Cleland, analyst with Precursor Group in Washington, DC. "The trick is, how do they keep them happy and retain them? How do they keep it sticky? That's why 8.0 is so important. They are adding features that their consumer base wants. If they can stay ahead of their competitors in meeting their consumer base needs, they'll be OK."

Gang says AOL studied its customers' biggest complaints and top requests for new features when it produced 8.0.

"I'd say about 70-plus percent of it is actually [from] the feedback loops that we have and about 30 percent is innovation," Gang said.

"Members Rule" signs also cover the walls at headquarters, pasted up by an employee group called TOM (The Optimists Movement), which was organized to boost AOL's widely reported low morale. Company executives have acknowledge that in recent years AOL's troubles may have been exacerbated by a relentless drive to increase revenue, perhaps at the cost of focusing less on the customer. Those woes include a government investigation into some of the company's accounting practices and the resignations of several top executives. Gang wouldn't comment on those issues.

"They're getting back to their roots," Cleland said. "What made AOL have 35 million customers is that they figured out first that they needed to take care of their customers and they needed to know the consumer."

AOL says it plans no price changes for its service, though 8.0 will have some premium features that will cost extra.