Aol compatibility

I have AOL Desktop 9.6, Windows 7, and Norton 360 5.0.  If I'm on AOL, am I protected?  When I do searches, when on AOL, the little OK circle doesn't show up next to my searches.  Does this mean I'm not protected?  I would just use IE 9.0 but the tabbing doesn't work.  When I click on a link and it's a link that's supposed to go to a new tab, the new tab window comes up but it's completely blank, totally a white screen.  Please help, so that I know if I'm on AOL that I'm totally protected.