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Technology news and Jobs 
Fuzzy Logic Can AOL propel Netscape visitors into Propeller.com?
Fuzzy Logic Can AOL propel Netscape visitors into Propeller.com? | Can AOL propel Netscape visitors into Propeller.com? |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Monday, 17 September 2007 | |
      
What do you do when the online portal you’ve used for years suddenly changes into a clone of Digg? For some users, the changes to Netscape.com were simply too much, while others embraced the social-news-networking Digg-like transformation with gusto. The man behind the Digg-isation of Netscape is Jason Calcanis, who originally expected the new Netscape to be super successful. Unfortunately this didn’t actually happen, and while the new Netscape certainly enjoyed a modicum of success, it never transformed into a site receiving the tsunami of traffic a site like Digg both gives and receives. Now AOL have confirmed that Netscape.com will transform back and automatically redirect to a more traditional portal site which you can see now at the Netscape AOL home page . AOL are promising not to abandon Propeller.com, and will still use the Netscape portal to link to stories at the Propeller site, ensuring that AOL are offering users the best of both worlds – portal, social-news-networking or a combination of both. Jason Calcanis is no longer with the Netscape team, having moved on to Maholo.com http://www.maholo.com, a site that boasts it is the ‘world’s first human powered search engine’. Unfortunately for Maholo, that’s a claim I’ve heard before from early search pioneers Looksmart, while a search through Google for ‘human powered search’ brings up links to other search sites claiming the same thing, so just how popular and successful Maholo ends up being is anyone’s guess. AOL are clearly hoping to bring as many previous and current Netscape users along for the ride, so that they maintain – and hopefully grow – the amount of traffic going to both sites. It is a shame that AOL didn’t take this approach from day one, keeping the old Netscape.com portal in place, while working on and integrating the social-news-networking elements in slowly, or at least giving users an option to switch back to the trusty portal they knew and loved if desired. Sadly, that was not the case. Still, the change of course is better late than never, and while success is not guaranteed for AOL with this re-adjustment, the chances are that AOL can squeeze a bit more goodwill out of the Netscape name for a bit longer still, especially as they look to have added a bit of extra cred by taking Netscape.com back to a portal that now offers information and online services while maintaining, in a new web address, the social networking news gathering, ranking and commenting that many online love to participate in and contribute to. AOL’s changes with Netscape are very unlikely to propel Netscape.com’s traffic into the stratosphere, but they may well be about to give the Netscape.com portal and brand name a much needed boost. Web surfers of the world, Netscape.com’s fate rests in your hands. We’ll no doubt find out soon enough just how successful, or otherwise, the Netscape makeover has been – and just how well the Netscape.com portal and brand name still resonate with customers – or not. If it’s not a success, the future of the Netscape brand might be at risk. Without a trusty crystal ball to see what will happen, we still think AOL has plenty of work ahead of it to stay ahead of (or just try and keep up with) the ever changing technological curve. |
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