There’s a rumor going around that Netscape, as we know it in it’s social news form, is to be discontinued by AOL. The rumor stems from AOL having launched a “new” Netscape branded portal, which is basically a re-branding of AOL’s portal.
At this time it is not clear who Michael Arrington’s sources are, however as a Netscape Scout, I can say that I don’t see anyone “freaking out,” and I certainly am not.
It is anyone’s guess as to what could have occurred within AOL to result in launching another Netscape-branded portal. The banner they are running on the front page of Netscape.com suggests that it is in response to user feedback. When Jason Calacanis launched the Netscape social news offering, there was an initial backlash from the old portal users. But that was over a year ago.
Since then the Netscape user base has grown considerably, with 300,000 registered users and over 10 million visitors per month. Their enthusiasm for the site abounds, as evidenced in recent comment threads.
In any case, Tom Drapeau, Director of Netscape, was quick to put this rumor to bed with this comment on TechCrunch:
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
Marcien Jenckes, SVP AOL Messaging, Community & Voice, quickly followed with his support for Tom and Netscape:
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.
Personally, I’m not impressed with the addition of a new Netscape-branded portal. It will do nothing but add to the confusion surrounding the Netscape brand, which has been a constant problem over the years. And speaking of literally damaging a brand: what happened to the Netscape logo to make it all squished, jaggy and blurry on that portal? But I digress.
Clearly there is some fumbling around with the Netscape brand going on at AOL right now, but it is going too far to suggest that AOL is pulling the plug on the Netscape social news site.
UPDATE: James Marcus, Netscape’s Lead Anchor, chimes in with his take on this.