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August 9, 2007

AOL May Kill Their Netscape Digg Clone

Michael Arrington

66 comments »

AOL is considering killing off the “Digg Clone” social news site that they launched a little over a year ago at Netscape.com, and redirecting traffic to the Netscape portal instead. One source says it’s a done deal. Another says no final decisions have been made. But the Netscape editorial team is rumored to be completely freaked out, and they are starting to talk to outsiders. Either way, take a good look at that screen shot to the right. It may be the last chance you have to see the service.

It’s unclear as to why the site might be scrapped or changed. Netscape.com and netscape.aol.com are controlled by different groups with AOL. At the very least a turf war of some kind is playing a part. And since Netscape’s primary champion, Jason Calacanis, left the company late last year to start a new company, it may leave the social news property without enough clout to protect itself.

See this announcement on Netscape.com that some of the traditional portal/news features are being incorporated into the site. One source says this is a testing of the waters to gather data for a final decision:

Just launched this week, there is a new AOL.com site available for the Netscape Community. Over the past year, there has been a lot of feedback regarding some of the features of the previous Netscape.com site that have gone away, and this site hopes to being some of that functionality back. Check it out!

Update: An AOL spokesperson carefully comments below.

Community has been a core element of both AOL and Netscape since their inception and will continue to be. As the text on the site explains, we wanted to give a more traditional portal alternative to the Netscape users who requested it. You can rest assured that social news will continue to be an important part of what we do.

The message doesn’t address the issue head on. In fact it is sort of content-free. Saying “community has been a core element of both AOL and Netscape since their inception” followed by “you can rest assured that social news will continue to be an important part of what we do.” This is very different from saying that they are not closing netscape.com as we know it. Clarification is requested. See this comment as well from Tom Drapeau, who runs the current Netscape site. He’s also clearly annoyed by this post.

Update2: long Netscape blog post on the subject, still no denial but they are seriously annoyed with this post. Note to AOL: I can’t help it if people inside AOL/netscape are chattering about this to me. And all these vague responses tell me clearly that a real debate is going on internally about the fate of netscape.com. It’s actually a good thing that people are chatting about you. Look at some of the leaks at Google and Yahoo and all the stuff that gets out about them. This means that AOL may be starting to become relevant again to the early adopters. Silver lining and all that.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

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Comments

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  1. Maridia

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:04 pm

    I had no idea it existed. Instead of cloning websites, AOL should put its resources to better use and produce something original for once.

  2. Otis Gospodnetic

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:09 pm

    About time. I predicted that 14 months ago:
    http://blog.simpy.com/blojsom/.....ch-On.html

  3. Josh

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:10 pm

    Until I saw this post, I had already forgotten about it, so I guess I’m not all that surprised that it may be going away.

  4. Beatles

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

    It is a good site - before Digg expanded into Politics and World News, Netscape had initially began that trend off just the the Tech emphasis

    If Reddit can survive, so can Netscape

  5. Sam Sethi

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:18 pm

    Like Calacanis’ (modern day PT Barnum) Mahalo, it has become irrelevant and was only kept alive by his hot air and hype which by the way he is very good at doing. So no surprise to see it folding now he has left.

    The saddest thing is that Nestscape was the original web portal started by Mike Homer copied by Yahoo, MSN and AOL. As an ex-Netscape employee I would rather see the whole brand enter the deadpool, than limp along as a sub-brand.

    The only person who can really save Netscape - with enough money and vision - is Marc Andressen.

  6. Allen Stern

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:30 pm

    Just to clarify - I thought Jason started Mahalo after joining Sequoia - I can remember him saying he wasn’t sure what was next after leaving AOL.

    What will Jason do for traffic now? :)

    He seems to get on Netscape front page each time with his how-to’s but not on Digg - see this for an example:
    http://travel.netscape.com/sto.....ak-french/

    I think the “friends” email system hurt(s) Netscape. When I login now, I have 242 messages, and I am sure everyone of them is “please vote me up”.

    Sam - I am not sure Marc can save Netscape. I would vote for Netscape.com merging into AOL and be done with it. Maybe add the voting option similar to Y Comb news to it.

  7. RBA

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:31 pm

    I never felt the best way to bring “social news” to the masses was by sticking it to their face in a “take or leave it” fashion, no matter how much Jason felt that was a winning formula. As also a (very) former Netscape employee I hate to see the brand being diluted again and again into who-knows-what’s-next.

    Netscape had the audience, the leverage and the resources. Man, do I know people would love to have 1/4 of any of those who are doing amazing things and yet they have to take one battle at a time :-/ No matter how much you think Netscape was already a dead brand, Jason had gold in his hands and he knew it.

    We’ll see…

  8. Tom Drapeau

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

    Umm…. who are all of these sources? I run the Netscape.com social news site now, and I wrote the text that you quoted in your article.

    The cobrand launch this week was simply an effort to give a place to go for those who desire a Netscape portal experience instead of a social news experience.

    The Netscape.com social news team is alive and well, despite your “rumors”, and have extensive plans for 2007 and 2008 which are already in progress. We may exist in a different AOL division than the AOL.com team, but that doesn’t make this a turf war.

    I am speaking to the editorial team right now, and as they knew this portal was launching weeks in advance… they aren’t “completely freaked out”.

    Where are you getting these sources/rumors?

    If you are curious to know about Netscape.com, e-mail me at tom at newnetscape dot com.

    Tom

  9. RBA

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    #8 says: “The cobrand launch this week was simply an effort to give a place to go for those who desire a Netscape portal experience instead of a social news experience.”

    Well, as I just said in #7, the “take it or leave it” approach seemed to be a mistake from the beginning, so I’m glad something’s being done about it, even if it’s one year later.

    On the other hand, I think this is the first time I see the words Digg, Kill and Clone in a different order: “X kills Digg Clone” versus the classing “X launches Digg Killer” :-)

  10. Tom Drapeau

    August 9th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    And how sad is that, “hopes to being some of that functionality back” was certainly supposed to be “hopes to bring some of that functionality back”. :-)

    This has been corrected on the Netscape side.

  11. Clickfire

    August 9th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    I’m not sure it deserves the name “digg clone.” There are differences.

  12. Marcien Jenckes, SVP AOL Messaging, Community & Voice

    August 9th, 2007 at 4:10 pm

    I want to echo Tom’s post. Community has been a core element of both AOL and Netscape since their inception and will continue to be. As the text on the site explains, we wanted to give a more traditional portal alternative to the Netscape users who requested it. You can rest assured that social news will continue to be an important part of what we do.

  13. Rover

    August 9th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

    It’s not that it was a wrong decision to launch Netscape - I think it has died (or is dying) because it was implemented so poorly.

    I (a seasoned Internet user) haven’t been able to find (and I suspect it doesn’t exist) any way to sort new stories by votes, or understand how they separate them into channels. Searching within a channel (c’mon this is THE MOST BASIC FUNCTION you’d need if you launch a generic news site - how do you expect people to stuff?) doesn’t exist. I also don’t think there’s a button to click to see the latest stories as they are submitted. The service is plagued by spamming, too. I don’t remember all my gripes now, but I know I had a lot and my impression from the whole Netscape thing was that it seemed like a hastily launched “beta” service.. that never improved.

    Did they really expect something that bad to take off? It’s almost as naïve as Google expecting their equally poorly implemented Orkut to take over Facebook.

  14. Robert Seidman

    August 9th, 2007 at 4:49 pm

    I believe that community (as well as content, context and commerce…sorry, couldn’t resist) will continue to be important and I trust that there’s absolutely no good reason NOT to do social news.

    What won’t continue to be important is having the AOL.COM brand and the netscape.com brand. Why it’s still important in August 2007 is, and especially from an expense point of view…mysterious.

  15. Goe D.

    August 9th, 2007 at 4:50 pm

    Thanks for this post. I am a fan of Netscape and was visiting their social network site http://www.netscape.com/ at least 2 or 3 times a week. Will it be an END??? Hope not, as I heard it was only a rumors. You guys did a great job on having this site up. Though it is like Digg (they say Digg Clone) site, who cares? For me, content matters.

  16. David Mackey

    August 9th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

    Good to hear from some Netscape reps., this isn’t the case. I think Netscape has its own to offer.

  17. Corey Spring

    August 9th, 2007 at 5:03 pm

    Haha, yeah and AOL is renaming itself TMZ, too.

  18. Fabian

    August 9th, 2007 at 5:40 pm

    I remember the early days of Netscape and their portal. They were the first ones - that I know - to have movable “widgets” and home page personalization. I had totally forgotten about Netscape until just now.

  19. Craig

    August 9th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

    Gotta Wonder if Jason is the source ;) Are we trying to drum up some controversy in advance of TechCrunch 20 ?

  20. Avinash

    August 9th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    Geez! So many remakes of Netscape.com . Now I’m ready to forget that Netscape.com even exists!

  21. Mikew

    August 9th, 2007 at 5:54 pm

    What would J Do?

    J as in Jason. He’s the messiah you know.

    I think he’ll beat Obama and Hillary.

  22. The Buxr Widget

    August 9th, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    Maybe they should merge Mahalo and the Social News Site ;)

  23. Michael Vu

    August 9th, 2007 at 7:06 pm

    It was too much of a clone to be anything legitimate…

  24. Keith

    August 9th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

    Though it may look like a Digg clone, but Netscape has its own unique feature and story content, which is not available in Digg. Hopefully Netscape stands still and strong, I won’t like to see a monopoly of Digg in anyway.

  25. Colin Dowling

    August 9th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

    We could only be so lucky as for ALta Vista “clone” Google, HP “clone” Dell, and Prodigy “clone” AOL to all cease existence. :rollingeyes: Give it a rest; businesses have long been imitated and improved upon in various sectors. Netscape offers content in areas (like Health and Wellness, for example) that never make it to Digg. Furthermore, how com Reddit gets a free pass from being a Digg “clone?”

    I continue to wonder why content sites with voted upon categories are Digg “clones” but search engines, email clients, and even Mike’s own Edgeio (sp) that follow the paths blazed by other ventures aren’t called “clones” as well. Yawn.

  26. John

    August 9th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    So, when did you start your new job at Microsoft? :-)

  27. Netscape user

    August 9th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    Netscape is so much better then Digg in many ways, its so nice to have a range of users of different sex and age and not the 20 year old males who hang out at Digg and talk about digg. The discussions over at Netscape kick ass and the users are far more mature then the Digg crowd.

  28. Wing Yu

    August 9th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    Keep in mind that AOL acquired Relegence…

  29. Netscape Lover

    August 9th, 2007 at 8:30 pm

    Netscape.com Rocks…I love It!!!

  30. Rod Thomas

    August 9th, 2007 at 8:42 pm

    I guess Tom Drapeau RAN netscape.com, as the site as of right now is not up…which, given the error message doesn’t look to be an accident.

    Warning: mysql_error(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /data/servers/www_netscape_com/htdocs.070808.3517/lib/php/SqlDatabase.php on line 341
    cant connect to database:

  31. digg it

    August 9th, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    Why do so many people dislike Jason Calacanis? This post is about Netscape but several folks are commenting on Jason.

    Did he hype digg clone? Is he hyping his new company too? How is it doing BTW?

    The guy must be smart. No? Sequoia gave him EIA position and funded him.

  32. Michael Arrington

    August 9th, 2007 at 9:14 pm

    Rod - I just got a 55 second load time, but the site came up for me.

  33. wayjer

    August 9th, 2007 at 9:39 pm

    Just wanted to say Hello! Been awhile! LOL

  34. Evangelist

    August 9th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    Not sure why would they want to completely kill this? Any rationale?
    Rather they could move this to a different domain and continue to grow it.

  35. iMarketingGuru (Search Marketing Wiki)

    August 9th, 2007 at 9:53 pm

    This is crappy, I think that these social bookmarking sites need to start coming up with monetization strategies because the fact that they are leaving money on the table is far too out of hand. What is the rationale behind killing this campaign?

  36. SVDaily

    August 9th, 2007 at 10:16 pm

    Netscape has been done since Explorer came out.

  37. Auto Parts Geek

    August 9th, 2007 at 10:28 pm

    I never did understand why people like the idea of pitting Netscape against Digg. Clearly, there is no competition between the two because they serve a different niche of visitors. I like Netscape a lot for many of its functions. I also dig Digg, with its many iteresting content.

    I do not think calling Netscape as a Digg clone is appropriate. That is like calling Google a Yahoo clone! this time is the era of improving on what already exists if not coming with better stuff ourselves. To hang on to what is popular and bring down the innovators in the industry is not something that encourages progress.

    Leave Netscape and Digg be. No matter what the real scoop with Netscape is, I still think it was a helluva site.

  38. E

    August 9th, 2007 at 10:32 pm

    http://news.netscape.com/story.....techcrunch

    compare the Netscape Members comments on the possible demise to the Digg and Techcrunch Comments

  39. test

    August 10th, 2007 at 12:10 am

    tes tsd sdgsd

  40. Murtaza

    August 10th, 2007 at 12:37 am

    Musharraf is pictured in the screenshot. Cool. Anyways I feel sorry for Netscape.

  41. Harry

    August 10th, 2007 at 3:28 am

    Everyone knows the Netscape digg-clone was and is an instant failure.

    Let it shut down. It’s a waste of space

  42. Robert MacEwan

    August 10th, 2007 at 3:29 am

    I heard their renaming it “Netscape Digg Clone” - pass it along.

  43. Graham Walker

    August 10th, 2007 at 7:04 am

    Who wrote this post Michael Denton or Nick Arrington

  44. Matt Hancock

    August 10th, 2007 at 7:21 am

    Functionality wins or fails. I don’t think the netscape site is a digg clone. It rather should be considered a wannabe. It sucks. I think the Netscape portal failed in one important, simple area. The top link (the BOLD, UNDERLINED link) for any story entry, is not to the story, but to netscape’s recap of the story. You have to click “view story” to read the story. Digg has it right.

  45. schvitzatura

    August 10th, 2007 at 7:28 am

    What does this mean:

    Close existing instances of browser du jour. Clear cookies and browser cache…open two fresh browser windows. Load http://www.aol.com in one browser instance. Load netscape.aol.com in the other.

    Close the netscape.aol.com-loaded browser instance. Reload the http://www.aol.com instance.

    Note: still loads as http://www.aol.com, but with AOL/Netscape hybridized branding and content.

    This is sure to cause some further headscratching, huh?

  46. Simon

    August 10th, 2007 at 7:44 am

    This site is not the clone of digg

  47. Richard Miller

    August 10th, 2007 at 8:05 am

    am gonna miss u lil buddy :(

  48. 10668844

    August 10th, 2007 at 8:06 am

    Digg has cemented itself as the default site for this type of content. I wonder how long until it becomes more or less the only one.

  49. Jim

    August 10th, 2007 at 8:15 am

    Er, Tom Drapeau, as the person running the social Netscape.com, shouldn’t you at least update http://blog.netscape.com with some comments about what is going on?

  50. Jeff

    August 10th, 2007 at 8:49 am

    The real thing that is rumored to be killed is the Netscape browser (vs. that “social news” site thing)

  51. Jeff S

    August 10th, 2007 at 9:21 am

    This makes a case for caution when cloning something while adding few if any new features. You can’t just clone something that is way out front and think it will succeed without differentiation….unless you’re in China, maybe.

  52. Ron

    August 10th, 2007 at 10:32 am

    One way or the other, it’s pretty funny how easy it is to pick out people talking smack that either never even checked the site out, been there once, or view news as competition (the only thing that seems to get the fifteen year olds interested).
    After all, if it says AOL on it, it can’t be good… right? Never check something out and think for yourself… just regurgitate the same crap you heard.

  53. Ramon

    August 10th, 2007 at 2:25 pm

    Somebody save Netscape’s response - if it does go black, the comedic value could purchase a majority of shares in AOL stock.

  54. Rabid 'Scaper

    August 10th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    I’ve been to Digg, I’ve been to the ‘Vine, I’ve reddit and I’ve Yahooed in Groups. There is only one site, one place where the community rocks and isn’t controlled by a bunch of four year olds and that’s the ‘Scape.
    You don’t like the ‘Scape? Why? Don’t like to get great content from reliable sources round the clock? Maybe you dislike real social news about things that are happening within the Netscape community. I don’t know, but I do know that if you spent a little time with us on the ‘Scape you’d find that there is no place more welcoming, with better content and with the quick learning curve that Netscape.com has.

    Sure, there are some things that need to be changed. Netscape’s got poor loading times and the architecture of the site could use some work, but hey, the architecture of this site could use some work too. Netscape.com is a work in progress and I for one will fight to make that progress happen. Netscape isn’t a democracy, but it sure isn’t a tyranny either.

    This kind of disinformation and half rumor is poor ‘journalism’ even in the bloggosphere.

  55. Fernando

    August 11th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

    Wow,

    It took them OVER ONE YEAR to deliver on Calacanis’ “truce” promises…

    I once had high hopes for Netscape. Now I’ve totally switched to Google News and don’t plan to go back to Netscape. Their latest Netscape 9.0 browser with (once again!) cross-platform MacOS-X and Linux support is a step in the right direction, but being based on Firefox 2.0 and with FF 3.0 around the corner, it’s also too late, and irrelevant.

    Some background:

    AOL’s Calacanis offers “truce” to enraged Netscape.com fans
    http://www.theinquirer.net/def.....icle=33156

    Is the Netscape.com brand meaningless after Jason Calacanis?
    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=35826

    Netscape Webmail to be killed by AIM after Calacanis’ Experiment
    http://uk.theinquirer.net/defa.....icle=33125

    In short: since Netscape took the ugly decision of laying off all their programmers and becoming a phantom brand, a soul-less ghost inside the AOL empire, it’s been downhill. They had something good with the Netscape.com portal, but instead of devoting more funds to it and catering to the “net connoisseurs” who used Netscape browsers, they “dumbed down” the portal first and then brought Calacanis to totally destroy what was once a pioneer portal, with the excuse of “broadening its appeal” and bringing newcomers to the site.

    The “social news” idea was poorly executed, instead of making everyone happy and leaving http://www.netscape.com as a “traditional portal” and making the “web 2.0″ version use another domain name or subdomain like news.netscape.com they switched overnight making a lot of people angry in the process.

    When Calacanis realized about the outrage, he offered to keep the traditional version, but as far as I was told most of the old portal people was gone. And now they deliver that.. .ONE YEAR TOO LATE. I wonder if there’s anyone out there who liked the old Netscape.com who might want to check out the new one… everyone who disliked the “social news” Netscape has already moved to greener pastures.

    TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE.

  56. butt boy johnson

    August 18th, 2007 at 7:22 am

    I too work for Netscape, and I can verify that we will not take down this website.

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