Update On Netscape.com: It’s Done, Possibly Moving To WOW.com. Big AOL Layoffs Coming.
Michael Arrington
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We’ve gotten an update on the controversial post we wrote earlier this month on the possible shutdown of the fourteen-month-old old Digg-clone Netscape. Too many AOL execs have had their eye on the Netscape.com domain name, which brings in 3 million or so page views per day. The most likely scenario - The current home page at aol.netscape.com becomes the default page for Netscape.com, and the year old digg-clone moves to a new domain.
We hear that wow.com, a domain previously owned by Compuserve and acquired by AOL, is a potential landing place for the Netscape service. AOL may have different plans for wow.com, however, and the Netscape portal may land somewhere else. Either way, look for a link or module from the old service to remain on the netscape.com domain after the changeover.
We also expect to hear about material layoffs at AOL in the next six weeks, possibly as much as 15% of the 16,000 strong workforce. Next week the senior execs are supposed to be notified of the exact size of the cuts and whether they are targeted to specific business groups or across the board cuts.
Layoffs are actually likely to be higher than 15%, the number floating around Dulles is that it’ll be closer to 25%.
yeah I heard up to 25% but wanted to keep it conservative. Heard as low as 5%, too.
man, what has become of netscape - they use to be so large, now they’re just primarily a, lol, digg clone…
Mike,
A correction - the site u want to refer to in your post is http://netscape.aol.com/ and not aol.netscape.com
given the new version of my.aol.com they could bring back some of this functionality anyways.
Not practical to support a dig clone, my.aol AND aol.com
It’s amazing, but I have a feeling AOL has been “dying” for the past 10 years, yet it’s still around and it’s still a relatively important player.
Had AOL stayed away from Time Warner, fired Steve Case way before that even, they would have stood a chance. Their abrupt change to ‘ free’ from their paid subscription should have been a gradual process begining, say…2001, when everyone was migrating to broadband. Like yahoo, a day late and a few dollars short.
Will be interesting to see where AOL ends up. Seems like they need a major vision reworking to continue on.
Not only is Netscape.com a Digg clone, the AOL portal itself is an embarrassingly blatant rip-off of Yahoo.com. This is a company that has lost its way, and are we are just watching them bleed slowly to death.
AOL was doomed because the technology it relied on was doomed to obsolescences. If AOL had not merged with Time Warner, things would have been even worse for AOL, because as a smaller company it would have been even more reliant on subscription income and, as a result, would have avoided making its content free for even longer.
The high-priced Internet dial-up market is not one that was fated to live that long, and I doubt any company whose primary business was dial-up will survive in a major way in the long run.
AOL is no MSN, neither is Yahahaha or Gaggle!
I’m not surprised at all
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
AOL is still an operating company?
Poor Netscape. How many times can a dead horse be beaten, killed, resurrected, beaten some more, have some makeup slapped on it’s unrecognizable face and propped up in the dusty window display?
It’s really sad.
This Wow.com acquisition is very clever! Whatever they host on it, they’ll get tons of visitors trying to reach the World of Warcraft website…
Why do we have doubts that AOL is still operating? Come on!! I love cynical people but you need to have substance in your cynicism.
I work for AOL and I am glad that things are changing at AOL. There is a re-branding that is happening and we have some nicest contents. As far as copying is concerned, no-one can point on anyone as it is a Bad Free World (it’s like saying internet is being copied ;-)).
I am curious to also know, which technology is in question, that lead to failure. To support million/billion hits will not come without technology.
If it is a bash time because coffee was bitter, enjoy, but if anyone has something substantial, let’s talk.
Thanx,
P
They are there to make business. if AOL has in it to survive, it will - come layoffs or anything. Some of the stuff that these guys have been doing are worth checking. my.aol.com was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. How many of you actually know that they have a Developer Network too.. http://dev.aol.com and most of their products have APIs.
AOL??????????
@15/TF, they may have APIs, but they don’t have a developer network.
When was the last time you heard of a great mashup using AOL’s APIs? Despite Mapquest having owned the maps space, 99% of map mashups are done with Google Maps.
Mapquest supposedly has APIs, I just haven’t seen anyone use them for something meaningful. I doubt the APIs are even very flexible.
This is likely what happened:
- Google releases APIs
- Two years later clueless MQ exec says “we’ve got to have those ‘API’ things, whatever they are”
- They create some lame APIs that don’t have 25% of the functionality that Google does
- They don’t do any marketing
- No one uses their APIs
- Clueless MQ exec says “APIs were a waste of time, let’s go back to burying our head in the sand”
not http://aol.netscape.com
http://netscape.aol.com
Not Sure, Why few of them have concern about Is AOL still Live? Why Not. AOL is now a huge Player of Web 2.0 Look at AOL Open Auth. Not the least, AOL Video search is the best of the web so far in video search and beating text search players.
AOL is re-branding itself and soon will see a big bang and beat all the players out there in the world.
What?! You didn’t want to post my last comment?
and I bet, like most everyone else, the 2,000+ employees have given their heart and soul to their jobs, with no consideration to their own career futures. Sad stuff.
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
:: self-serve career management ::
wow.com will be used for World of Warcraft, not for netscape
AOL will stay on top as a major player whether or not its layoff of most of its workers happens or not, it can cut down to a dozen or more dev folks and system admins, and run the rest from India, where most of the jobs seem to end up after a layoff here, yes I here , as an employee , I said it. I hope all of our hard work isnt in vain. While the top dogs with their Golden parachutes move in and out of AOL and TW to other positions. but hey it is almost xmas, that is usually our xmas bonus , a big layoff
AOL stalls and netscape fades, because the market has passed them. A few clony apps here and there, some laughable APIs left and right, does not change the fact that: 1. they still run a profitable but shrinking operation from the dialup app, and 2. the only, but promising, growth spot are around the advertising.com cluster. All other silly so called web 2.0 thingy add up to nothing in terms of size and potential compared to 1 and 2.
This space nurture and then bury different business models on a rapid clip: Yahoo is also stalling, although they’ve been stalling for quite a few years, only the ad growth in the last few years hid their sins. Akamai was cool only a year ago, remember?
It’s only natural for AOL and netscape to continue to struggle before they find their own successful evolutionary path, while we all part way and find our own profitable enterprise.
No miracle last forever.
AOL is going to always be a big player in the web world. Follow the real stats page views and any other news…where is the substance on this blog? I also an employee have seen the changes and re-branding…funny how car makers can share and “copy” and no one thinks a thing about it…buy a lexus and your buying a glorified Toyata …its business, I believe in AOL and will continue to contribute and drive change for the better. Layoffs are a part of corp life..if you can’t swim in the sea with the sharks, get out of the water and become a land lover..go become a gardner or a 7-11 slurpee person..layoffs don’t happen there..if you want to live in a fast paced and real job where you have to perform well, and keep your attitude great then layoffs are a part of that reality. All great companies lay off, and lean down. Do I agree with them ..no but I accept them and choose to continue to be a part of a great company that has and will continue to impact the use of the Internet, and continue to be an important part of peoples lives. AOL in2tv great product, AOL video search, also great product, AOL pictures available before anyone else had it and always most functionality. Direct Drive data storage for members also great product not available first on Google or Yahoo..or MSN. AOL leads the way in a lot of ways and will continue to pull away from the pack. AOL News has the best and most relevent news available.
Good to see somebody with fire in the gut even though you are simply in denial. Whether AOL’s various products are the first/best, or whether AOL is always going to be a big or relevant player aren’t universally shared as fact. Layoff happens, but usually it’s not an indicator of a company that’s humming along nicely, especially not them massive ones that AOL has a habit of doing on a yearly basis. it’s sad that quite a lot of these half decent AOL products fading in and out of focus and eventually contribute little to the bottom line, I mean, remember totalTalk? AOL will find its footing, like Apple/IBM did through their own crisis, but not before they ditch their narcissistic way of defending their sorry state.
We all know AOL is a doomed sinking ship as in Titanic. It is going to be split up and sold off by TWX in 2008 and the morons who miss out on this RIF will be jealous then having seen all of Northern Virginia’s jobs go to the lucky few who left before the head of this turd rots off.
I took a layoff package from AOL last year. It was on its last leg then and must be must worst now. I’ve never worked for a company that has more non-college grad in management positions. Talk about brain drain. Most of the top people have moved on to better companies.
It is really interesting to watch AOL insiders sing glory about themselves!
The problem is, there is nothing to back that claim. Nobody has validated what they are saying.
Seems like Steve Case has left several clones in this dead tree trunk, and they keep on singing their tune in the hollow space.
Some brands have an X marked on their forehead. AOL looks like one of those.
there is nothing that I can see that would give any valid proof of AOL’s smarts and savvy!
Sorry guys, someone’s got to tell the old lady that it’s not the mirror that is making her ugly!
Being a former Netscaper, it is sad what happened to once a great company. But I also know that our days were numbered and a lot of folks benefited (some a lot more than most) when AOL bought us.
AOL is on a downward spiral. There’s no denying it. There’s very little innovation inside and nothing to really encourage it. Yeah, we have a little blip here and there of new ideas but for the most part it’s about following the process and doing only things that have a guaranteed ROI. There’s actually an entire team whose job is to manage spreadsheets of projects. As I look at our product portfolio, there’s nothing that can save us.
6 months ago, a group of us sat with CEO, Randy Falco and when I voiced my concern over employee morale from the regular layoffs, he told us to our face “We are done with layoffs. We know it’s been tough for all of you. I want you to know that Ron (Grant) and I understand this and we are on a growth path.”
I didn’t realize he meant “We are done with layoffs for the next 6 months…”
I don’t think any of us want to lose our jobs but we have to admit that it is inevitable.
one in three will be laid off…. I think two in three would get rid of most of the dead weight.
Every year around this time we get the rumor of ‘25%’ really we do… will there be layoffs? hell yes. Do we need em? very much so. Shrink everything down and send all of it to India? dear god no. I say this based on actually working on the india ‘initiative’ . Its failing. All of the jobs they are supposed to do, they need to have their hands held by the US side. I have watched code go over to India, and be promptly brought back. Its not that they cannot code. Its they 1) do not show up for meetings half the time. 2) do not admit errors 3) have different expectations. Same for the NOC side. The AOL we have all known is done, hell it was a while ago. What it is will be is fine, we still make money, lots of it. Dropping dial up users has made money. And yes Falco is a dickhead we all knew this, so is Grant. Balan Nair was the worst though. No use, no business being in a leadership role. I expect to see HR cut alot, some dev, marketing , and some Ops. There is ALOT of dead weight at AOL… and its easier to layoff than fire.