Netscape This! AOL transforms Netscape into a social bookmarking site…
- 3 Comment
If you haven’t heard the news already, AOL is relaunching Netscape as a social bookmarking site and has Digg dead in it’s crosshairs.
AOL Copies Digg
This is the number one voted on story over on http://www.beta.netscape.com. At the time of this post, it had 146 votes. Many of the commenters think that the beta Netscape site will fail miserably. I, however, think that it is only a matter of time before we see a Netscape This link across the bottom of half the blog posts on the internet.
Before you discount the new Netscape, remember the three letters that are behind it. AOL… I know that they are not the company that they used to be but they are still an internet giant and a force to be dealt with.
If the beta Netscape site shows any signs of promise, it won’t be long before you see Netscape This links at the bottom of every Engadget post right next to Permalink along with all the other blogs that are part of Weblogs Inc. I wouldn’t put it passed AOL to add a Netscape This button directly into the browser of an upcoming release of their internet access software.
The beta Netscape site definitely has a long way to go. Unlike Google, when AOL says beta, they really mean beta. The sign-up page doesn’t display properly in Internet Explorer and after signing up using FireFox, I have yet to be able to log in. There also seems to be fluctuations in the number of votes. I would expect the counts to go up, but not to come back down.
AOL may want to exercise as much editorial discretion on the avitars that members are able to upload to their profile as they may on the stories that are submitted. Let’s just say that a few that I’ve seen are less that what most would consider “socially acceptable”.
All in all, I think that new Netscape will eventually become hugely successful or, they will just buy Digg for $30 or $40 million.
Digg, Netscape This, Beta Netscape, AOL
3 Comments on this post
Trackbacks
-
Ed said:
AOL’s aggressive advertising and marketing strategies, combined with their ability to integrate “Netscape This,” into every consumer they supply services to, they will no doubt have success.
However, I think it is too premature to say it will become hugely successful. AOL Homepages have, over time, sank rather well. Various other projects haven’t been superb in taking over their share of a market either. That doesn’t mean their ideas are flawed or filled with problems, it just means that people are free to choose, and sometimes they won’t choose AOL, for whatever reason.
Therefore, I think it is a wee bit too early to say it will become hugely successful. Successful yes, most likely. Hugely? We’ll see..
June 16th, 2006 at 4:10 am -
Robb Dunewood said:
Good points Ed. One thing that we know for sure is that time will definately tell. One thing that Netscape has going for it is that it offers a wider range of topics than Digg. I know that Digg plans to add new categories soon, however, this may be enough to at least get Netscape going.
June 16th, 2006 at 1:35 pm -
gaby de wilde said:
AOL has huge amounts of experience with advertising media compared to our current top brands. Google yahoo, m$ etc Google only just started with video adverts. ROFL!
AOL knows the effect of things.
We will never know if the exclusion of IE users from this stage of development is intentional.
I do think that would be an AOL kind of thing to do?
Think about it, it would be so cool if it didn’t work in IE7?
*hahaha*
June 28th, 2006 at 2:18 pm