Jim Clarke, Jason Calacanis + beta.netscape.com
People are talking about beta.netscape.com and worrying about skewed meta-journalism within AOL, which isnt an issue or important. (Postman and Chomsky can chortle on this conspiracy stuff as much as they want, ratings matter more)
AOL has the benefit of being an (integrated media) company with resources. The beta.netscape brand (which like 500 bloggers have posted about today) have missed the real story to me;
Will the early and mass internet market that use or would be interested in citizen journalism sites ala digg, do so if AOL actively encouraged them to ? And if so, is beta.netscape the right brand ? Or should there be a new brand ? That uses netscape.com and AOL traffic to drive digg destruction... (oh that $40m... sounds good hehe)
The black and aqua design of beta.netscape, without the softness and humanity of Six Apart's new alpha vox.com service, automatically tells me that the right message isnt going into Consumer Experience User Interface Land in AOL Lollyland. (well someone commented to me today their picture around board table had lots of lollies.. i havent yet called beta.AOL switch to confirm)
What do I, sample of One think of when I hear 'Netscape' ?
- That browser that lost to microsoft in the 90's that jim clarke got rich on, as one leg in his 3 billion dollar home runs
- Tried to be a portal before no go, Yahooooooo
- Tried the enterprise portal tools sell, no go. (and staff went to google and lived happily ever after)
- Day 1 Stock Chart !
- NASA and Space Discovery, y'know that movie where 3 old Americans went to the Moon or something.
I even told people today "hey, its good - go to netscape.com, but go to calacanis.com first, he's going off :)", not realising the beta.subdomain. (and they reply to me "it looks pretty much like a portal" 'oops')
Unfortunately I think Mac McCabe, while taking a breather, has the right strategy (leverage the default AOL/Netscape traffic), and go 2.0/riff-digg, with the meta-journo angle - which i like - but the problem is the brand. I just cant digg it.
What (definitionally) is the (beta.netscape) brand name btw ? Are we supposed to call it beta.netscape dot com? Or is it netscape dot com in waiting ?
People make fun of 3-7 letter websites, but beta.netscape is a mouthful. SixApart know this, and called Mena's mom new blogging tool - Vox.com; AOL should have just bought a really expensive 3 letter URL, which they drove people to from netscape.com, as well as syndicated content throughout the whole of AOL/Time - on and offline.
Anyway... brand / UI / design issues should get sorted because its a well built service... If the beta becomes real time, as in it goes live at netscape.com, will that mean it replaces the "pro" content, and what then happens to the pro content. (a prequel beta ?) Note : can beta.netscape (also) get rid of that sidebar please when i click thru to an article.
AOL has the benefit of being an (integrated media) company with resources. The beta.netscape brand (which like 500 bloggers have posted about today) have missed the real story to me;
Will the early and mass internet market that use or would be interested in citizen journalism sites ala digg, do so if AOL actively encouraged them to ? And if so, is beta.netscape the right brand ? Or should there be a new brand ? That uses netscape.com and AOL traffic to drive digg destruction... (oh that $40m... sounds good hehe)
The black and aqua design of beta.netscape, without the softness and humanity of Six Apart's new alpha vox.com service, automatically tells me that the right message isnt going into Consumer Experience User Interface Land in AOL Lollyland. (well someone commented to me today their picture around board table had lots of lollies.. i havent yet called beta.AOL switch to confirm)
What do I, sample of One think of when I hear 'Netscape' ?
- That browser that lost to microsoft in the 90's that jim clarke got rich on, as one leg in his 3 billion dollar home runs
- Tried to be a portal before no go, Yahooooooo
- Tried the enterprise portal tools sell, no go. (and staff went to google and lived happily ever after)
- Day 1 Stock Chart !
- NASA and Space Discovery, y'know that movie where 3 old Americans went to the Moon or something.
I even told people today "hey, its good - go to netscape.com, but go to calacanis.com first, he's going off :)", not realising the beta.subdomain. (and they reply to me "it looks pretty much like a portal" 'oops')
Unfortunately I think Mac McCabe, while taking a breather, has the right strategy (leverage the default AOL/Netscape traffic), and go 2.0/riff-digg, with the meta-journo angle - which i like - but the problem is the brand. I just cant digg it.
What (definitionally) is the (beta.netscape) brand name btw ? Are we supposed to call it beta.netscape dot com? Or is it netscape dot com in waiting ?
People make fun of 3-7 letter websites, but beta.netscape is a mouthful. SixApart know this, and called Mena's mom new blogging tool - Vox.com; AOL should have just bought a really expensive 3 letter URL, which they drove people to from netscape.com, as well as syndicated content throughout the whole of AOL/Time - on and offline.
"hi my name is james and i'm from beta.netscape where i'm an associate blogger and did you know your restaurant has had 223 "beta.netscapes" and we'd like to get your feedback on that... and your special fried rice"
Anyway... brand / UI / design issues should get sorted because its a well built service... If the beta becomes real time, as in it goes live at netscape.com, will that mean it replaces the "pro" content, and what then happens to the pro content. (a prequel beta ?) Note : can beta.netscape (also) get rid of that sidebar please when i click thru to an article.
posted by redbarren at 12:21 AM
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