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AOL to Launch Discount "Netscape" Internet Service
BigJimSlade writes "AOL is planning to launch a discounted internet service. The service will have less of the 'extras' that AOL users are used to, but will only cost $9.95 a month. In a move to cash-in on name recognition, AOL will be naming this service 'Netscape'."
Busy signals? No problem, I'm not alone, there are 10 Million other people also waiting to log on.
Ma & Pa Kettle don't need 150Kb+ incoming for their P2P apps. They want to log in to the InterWeb and check their email for pics of their grandkids. If this doesn't get them loads of new users I'll be very suprised.
Trolling is a art,
Great, now we'll have even more clueless people who want to "Get on Netscape" while referring to connecting to the internet.
-Splat
More like confuse the hell out of the average person...
Customer Support: Our web site supports IE4+ and Netscape 6+
Customer: You need a specific ISP?
Customer Support: Huh?
I thought the Mozilla foundation now owns the "Netscape" trademark. Am I wrong?
O poor Netscape...
A psychopath can't tell the difference between right and wrong. A sociopath knows the difference - he just doesn't care.
it's not like they'd call it "Time Warner Netscape"
right?
"The cup... the drop... it's a YES!"
Until the telcos get involved, using the phone to connect to the net is still very expensive. My DSL is finally going DOWN due to the telco (SW Bell) lowering the cost of the line BUT the service itself through a 3rd party ISP is staying the same. When AOL/MSN/whoever gets into the phone co business THEN we will see a REAL reduction is price and not just a loss of functionality to allow for a lower price.
"If you are on fire you can just stop, drop, and roll. If you fall into Lava you are just dead." - my 5yr old daughter
This marks the first time I have EVER considered AOL as a potential ISP. When all you want is a basic connection, AOL used to be the absolute worst way to go. This new option may be more suitable to advanced users.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
Let's take the name of a well-known web browser and name our Internet service after it!
(Great... Now people will assume they've already got an ISP because they see a "Netscape" icon on their desktop.)
That's about as stupid as Microsoft renaming MSN to "Internet Explorer" - for the sake of "brand recognition".
Why does AOL STILL require custom software when all necessary parts of a PPP connection come with any system? Connecting to AOL and getting all the content I can understand, but ...
oh who cares, i'm tried of ranting.
America Online ran a Netscape-branded ISP in the UK from 1999 to 2002. It was called Netscape Online, and the CD did actually come with Netscape Communicator. The ISP was subscription-free with users only to paying for the dial-up phone calls (this 'pay as you go' model of Internet access was popular in the UK at the time).
They shut it a little over a year ago and offered to 'upgrade' all subscribers to AOL. By this time, the pay as you go model was rather outdated, with flat-rate services and broadband becoming more popular.
Netscape Online launches: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_company_fi le/428621.stm
Netscape Online closes: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/24532 .html
"lo be the day when trusted men are bent to evil ways..."
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
Is it me or do the folks at Netscape (now at AOL) have a problem trying to sell or get people to use an abysmal product (JavaScript) by naming it after something successful just to help people put two and two together? It annoys tech folks and confuses the hell out of normal folks.
...will it be bundled with the Netscape web browser?
Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
...the barrel... I am sure this "Netscrape" service will be.
Where is the customer base for this service going to come from? Existing AOL clients, or the people who won't pay $20+ a month for internet?
They might do okay if they picked up some local access numbers for some heavily populated, but yet still rural areas. I remember when Netscape was the bigger better brother to Mosaic...
But hey, they own the name... they can use it. Wonder if their default supported browser will still be IE??
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Man, it's sad, seeing Netscape as a name of a cheap alternative to AOL... Somehow it just feels inappropriate.
I'm guessing it still uses AOL's proprietary dial up stuff, instead of standard dial-up networking.
This was the main reason I used a mom-n'-pop ISP before I had broadband...
There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer. -- J. H. Goldfuss
This could be just the boost that No More AOL CDs needs...
Come on guys, they are 1/4 of the way to a million AOL cds...send the new ones you have in with the old ones collecting dust in your closet!
Any other fun things to do with AOL CDs?
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
It looks like they are entering into the regular ISP business. Perhaps they are spreading a wider net to target more savvy users. That would explain the branding. Most /. readers probably won't be caught dead with an email address like john@aol.com but john@netscape.com sounds cool.
Hmmm, business development idea for slashdot. john@slashdot.org? Think about it.
Make of it what you will but, lately there has been a big push to get away from the AOL moniker. In the past few days Time Warner has dropped the AOL name and is changing its stock symbol from AOL.
Now AOL is announcing new services but they too are avoiding the AOL name. What's next? Rename AOL to AISP or The Internet?
They have taken away internet access and they just show you all the AOL advertising
I would think at this point more people, especially the newbies, would be aware of AOL then Netscape. AOL is the one with the constant stream of television commercials and coaster CDs.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
You can call Netscape, but as long as it is associated with AOL, it will be a spam magnet. In my experience, the only worse than AOL and their spam problems is Hotmail run by you know who.
With this service, it will now only cost you $9.95/month to have an inbox filled with 200 spam messages instead of the normal $24.95/month. Way to go AOL for lowering the price of receiving spam!
No trees were harmed in the composition of this; however, numerous electrons were inconvenienced.
Why didn't they just call it "AOL.Lite" or something lame. Using the same name for different "applications" in the same industry is just awefull. They already had the AOL name recognition, they should have stuck with it.
The big question is, What will happen to Netscape the browser? Imminant death? A renaming to something which loses name recognition and the remaining 1% share of market share?
This sounds like a smart move, to segment their markets, and thereby avoid losing business to some of the low-priced alternatives. Assuming they don't cannibalize their higher margin customers, it should be a net positive.
I think AOL might want to come out with a version that boots directly from a CD, and doesn't rely on Windows, etc. This would be a nice turnkey system for those who are not very familiar with PCs. Using technology from Knoppix, I bet they could squeeze in everything into a bootable CD.
...will now be seen in the eyes of the unwashed masses as "low-budget" or "second-best".
OTSN: What exactly has taken place for Microsoft to say "IE Wins The Browser War!"?
do() || do_not();
This is excellent from the point of name recognition. None of us will care about Netscape as an ISP, or as a division of AOL, or whatever. But if there are TV ads throwing the name out there, it can't help but promote Netscape THE BROWSER, and (albeit to a much lesser extent) Mozilla. I don't really care that it's Mozilla even. Make it Opera. Whatever. Just SOMETHING to make people realize that there is something other than godddam IE out there.
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions." -- G. K. Chesterton
Netscape 7.10 is a wonderful web browser and stable as hell in my experience. I don't see it as bloated, though as a web developer I find the DOM Inspector and JavaScript Console to be invaluable tools.
Apropos all this, how dare AOL use Netscape as a pawn in it's negotiations with Microsoft, callously discard it, then disrespect it's memory with this branding abomination.
I heard this on the Paul Harvey news just after Noon EDT. Sheesh, /. gettin' slower every day, we all know Paul's not a fast-on-his-feet kinda guy.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
When you asked an unknowlagable computer user which ISP they used, and their answer was 'Netscape', well now they can actually say it and be right!
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
I can't believe you americans still put up with shit like this. Here in Sweden, it has been possible for ages to get dial-up Internet from our largest ISP for only slightly more than $3/month - and that includes five POP3 accounts (with optional webmail access), 50 megs of webspace (accessible via FTP) and free telephone support.
:)
A dial-up without the extra features (just the web, baby) costs nothing per month, and per-minute charges are less than $2 per hour during peak hours (less than $1 off-peak).
Most importantly, we don't have any ISP's that require their customers to run special bugware (read "AOL Software" - and I'm blatantly assuming here that it's a required install, feel free to correct me). You lot obviously need to let your ISP's know what exactly constitutes acceptable pricing for stuff like "simple" Internet access
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
Ouch. This is bound to hurt jwz's feelings. No sarcasm intended. The message on his website when he resigned from Netscape is one of the saddest things I've ever read.
please AOL, stop this....just let netscape die so we can remember it as a good company who helped start the internet revolution.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I was a lieutenant in the Microsoft Army during the browser wars. Rumor has it I was next in line to be one of those little office assistant thingies. We kicked Netscape's azz and left the survivors to build bars and lament.
Speak truth to power.
Hm, no mention of the browser that is being offered in the download. Makes me wonder if their agreement with MS a while back to renew IE and put "Netscape" out to pasture will result in people downloading the Netscape software package with IE integrated. Also missing are keypoints like standardized email, dial up, and no proprietary drivers and network settings. Will people paying less actually end up getting more?
Compuserve, which is wholly owned by AOL, and branded as their 'aol - lite and cheaper' ISP service? Or, will 'netscape' be the new name for 'compuserve'?
Why would I want to Scrape my net? Why does AoL let me do that? It can't be safe for the children. AoL iz teh best! lololol.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
"-will offer a single e-mail account, search powered by Google and some news links, the source added."
Oh wow......sign me up! But in all seriousness, if they can offer a dialup account that ISN'T cluttered by their software, AND isn't the slowest service in the world, AND doesn't force you to see ads, then more power too them.
Since you can currently have an AOL account for $10 a month without using them for net access (like if you connected over your school's network or something) and since this will be roughly $10, I wonder if it would end up being cheaper to just get both of these services instead of basic AOL!!! God wouldn't that be funny.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Just what we need. Another goddamned cheap AOL for the spammers to latch onto. With AOL's "Screw you, you're not one of ours" anti-spammer policy, this should work wonders for our inbaskets, not to mention our mail servers.
I can't think of anything else to say that's not profane.
Anne
DUCT TAPE: The Election Supervisors' Secret Weapon
The broadboard add-on thingy is definately pointless, I can't believe anyone would actually sign up for that.
"Here, how about you pay us $15 a month and we'll let you use a crappy product that says "You've got mail!" in a really happy voice."
Cheap dialup is a good idea though, but I'm sad they want to call it Netscape. =(
~Elley
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
What I want to know is, will they ship the Netscape 7 browser to subscribers, ship a Netscape-branded hack of Internet Explorer with the home page set to netscape.com, or provide no extra software at all?
This could be a nightmare for tech support. You have no idea how many times I've had people tell me their web browser or Internet Service Provider was Yahoo, because that's what their home page was set to.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Those of us who were on CompuServe many years before AOL, much less the Internet, was a gleem in Steve Case's eye know how silly an idea THAT was.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
But will they *finally* use the Netscape/Mozilla browser for the service? If not, that would be a very interesting end to the browser wars: Netscape internet service acessiable only in IE.
It will also add to the tech support confusion as people will no longer understand the distinction between a browser and a service.
Ok guys, we gotta determine what name we'll actually call these users/the service. With AOL, it was easy- AOHell etc.
So what can we come up with for stupid AOL Netscape users/the service? Netscrape? Net-escape? Come on people, I'm graspin' at straws here, help me out. Must...insult....aol...users...
Please help metamoderate.
Big, bloated, falls over all the time. Where do I sign up?
That's the way technology aware people think of it, but thier using Mozilla with Verizon DSL service anyway. People who don't know what code bloat is remember Netscape as the gateway to the Internet. Thier passport to the world-wide-web. It still has a cool factor with the mainstream public.
The run of the mill AOL account lacks standard features such as spam filtering and a way to save e-mails intact. How can it be stripped down even more than this?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
So, is Netscape (err... Gecko based browser) a part of it or what? I mean, does it use I.E. alone or does it ship with Netscape? News.com says, "...the Netscape service will be a significantly smaller file download...". So what does that mean?
:-P)
If no Netscape, then how do we refer to the browser if we don't mean the ISP now? (Mozilla...
But seriously... What will become of Netscape.com? I mean logically it will become the portal site for the ISP...
On the other hand, if it ships with I.E. (or at least an I.E. preferences changer) then this might be the first instance of a company setting I.E. users homepages to Netscape.com...
In celebration of my diminutive penis and impotence, I will now call myself "Microsoft", benefiting from name recognition.
AOL puts everything it needs into its own directories. This way, they can support specific files in specific directories.
They also don't need to depend on files that could change by another program, or an OS update.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This is desperate ploy to bring back some of the luster to the DOA dial-up service they have been slowly burying for some time. Parsons should just fess up and admit he wants to run a media business without the distraction of an ultra-low-maring connectivity dinosaur. This would in effect completely undo the TW/AOL merger - a move most shareholders would welcome, now that it is understood and accepted that all the merger did was vaporize shareholder wealth.
Microsoft has announced a new, limited version of MSN called "Internet Explorer." It will cost $9.95/month.
A possible bundling of the service with Windows XP is being discussed.
The service will have less of the 'extras' that AOL users are used to, but will only cost $9.95 a month.
Is 'extras' directly translatable to 'crap'?
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Yes, there are plenty of people who have low demands for connectivity, but very very few new customers in this market. All of these people already have dialup. Their next move will be to broadband..yes, even ma and pa Kettle.
Isn't that just silly? I mean, reducing the name of Netscape to a cheap-ass striped down service is just plain mean. Not to mention all the confusion this will create, "Netscape provieder or Netscape browser?"
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
Back in November 1998, we bought Netscape for 4.2 billion dollars... but now, we're offering it to you for just $9.95 a month! Operators are standing by.
Or will they actually use netscape ???
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
As if the average Internet user wasn't confused enough as it is already! Most people don't know the difference between the Internet and a web browser. Now AOL is just blinding them further with their own ignorance.
http://www.askthevoid.com
Netscape is going to suck again....
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
It isn't specific what the trademarks were. But given the launch of this service, I'm guessing it included "Mozilla" related trademarks but not "Netscape" related trademarks. Details here.
Who wants to bet that AOL will be cannabalizing it's own user base with the launch of this Netscape online? Think about it. Most AOLers just want a simple way to get online, and don't like the $23.95 AOL cost, so a lot of them will just switch to the netscape online service.
they're charging $9.95 for access to the internet. no AOL content, just the access.
or
if you already have broadband, you can add just the content for $14.95.
they charge $23.90 or whatver for both. it would make sense that they would offer full subscribers some sort of discount, more than the $1.10 they're giving them now.
I think they might have been testing this for some time now. The $9.95 unlimited Internet access from Walmart looks and sounds eerily similar to AOL (similar packaging and marketing). I thought AOL *couldn't* be selling Walmart access for so much cheaper than they are offering it to their own customers, but it looks like that is in fact what they were doing.
The rise and fall of Netscape: from groundbreaking browser developer that lit the fuse on the internet boom to a $9.95 per month domain name email host...
pitty
Chris
EOM.
AOL paid MS them millions then dumped the Mozilla project. I bet it will be one of them IE skins that nobody knows to uninstall. My isp installs one onto IE if you use their (unnecessary) software.
If they include Netscape 7 as the default browser, maybe Mom and Pop will get used to tabs (if they realize they exist), and actually realize how backward IE is becoming...
philcrissman.com.
Is the ISP getting kickbacks from the telephone company? That is how some "free" ISPs make their money.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
They need to market it as a more permanent email service, which one can access no matter who your isp is, or if your away.
In a move to cash-in on name recognition, AOL will be naming this service 'Netscape'."
Is Netscape's name recognition really worth that much at this point?
The second ring of Cluebie Hell is AOL. Pretty much the same demographic that made FOX the network it is today. 'Nuff said. Some of them atoned for their sins and moved to CompuServe.
The third ring was were the truly damned were kept. It was called Prodigy. Words can not describe this horrific place, you had to experience it for yourself. Fortunately Prodigy has departed this world as have all of its users. You see, a secret government program was started when it was found that we could raise the collective IQ of the entire race by 10 points by eliminating the Prodigy users. They were all quietly taken out and shot and the service was closed down. Know any ex-Prodigy users? No? That's not a coincidence.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I'd like to think they've done a bunch of marketing studies and polls to determine the feasability of naming this new initiative NETSCAPE. Yet, considering the segment they seem to be targeting (users w/o big pipes needs, email, grandkids pics), it doesn't seem like NETSCAPE will have a lot of pull w/ those. The browser war has been over for years now, and people whose needs match what this service offers doesn't seem likely to really recognize it.
This is going to be a tech support nightmare. I already get people calling and telling me their ISP is netscape just because their home page is set to netscape.com. They could have just named it aol basic or something like that to use bigger known brand name. Or is aol trying to hide from their own bad publicity by changing names?
Seems to me that "AOL" is a much more recognizable name than "Netscape"- you can't help but know AOL from.. everything they do to shove their name at you.
Sounds much more like they're trying to get Away from that name..
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Yes, there are plenty of people who have low demands for connectivity, but very very few new customers in this market. All of these people already have dialup. Their next move will be to broadband..yes, even ma and pa Kettle.
People move to new areas and subscribe to new services. Think of people who previously lived with several other people and shared a [broadband] internet connection, who are moving away and living alone, but don't plan on using their account for much.
For me, I'd pay the extra bucks for broadband even if I were living alone, but that's not the case for everyone.
The market for dialup may not be growing, but the opportunity to compete is still there.
#!/
BankOne announced today that their online payment service will be renamed to Napster in order to leverage the brand-name recognition afforded by their recent buyout of the defunct music-swapping network.
Furthermore, their collections department will henceforth be known as United Payout Service, and collections agents will show up at your door wearing brown "UPS" uniforms and carrying tantalizingly wrapped parcels.
Brad Templeton, formerly of the Electronic Frontier Foundation but now hailing from the recently-renamed Quarter Pounder with Cheese, said in response to the news "This misrepresentation just the kind of thing we're against! I've half a mind to report these folks to the Securities and Exchange Commission!"
A spokesman from the SEC was unavailable for comment, remarking that he cannot make any official position statements until the agency finishes its internal reorganization next Tuesday, at which time it will be known as the Fuzzy Bunnies Commission.
at least now when you ask your friend's mom what ISP she uses and she says 'Netscape', you won't think she's a freakin moron.
oh wait..
So basically "Netscape" will be the gateway drug to the more expensive and brain-damaging AOL.
I'm sure there won't be any ads to upgrade to the latest, greatest, 2000-system-file-modifying AOL installation yet!
Could it be that "Netscape" will be the next "Amiga" brand? In other words, a once-great brand that they just slap on things they want to draw attention to, even though the new offerings have absolutely nothing to do with the original?
AOL are fools to have let go of the Mozilla people. Netscape 7.x would have been the perfect fully-integrated client software for this new service. And it would have been cross-platform from the very beginning, allowing AOL to tap into markets that were otherwise inaccessible.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
So all those lame-brained users I worked with when I did tech support back in 1995 can be right now when they call and say "my netscape is down!"
-- Greg
Slashdot, would a spell-checker for posting be too much to ask? It's not rocket science!
Yahoo is an internet service provider, and they have a customized web browser as well, so your customers might not actually be too far off.
The story of two schoolmates, Netscape and IE. Netscape and IE grew up together, but all through school Netscape was smarter faster and generally well liked. IE was awkward and most people found him annoying. As they got older, however, IE's rich uncle decided he would do all he could to get IE to be more popular. To to this, IE's uncle spent millions on an all out campaign re-writing all the books in school and paying off all the teachers in order to make IE look smarter and in turn more popular. Sure, most people didn't like him all that much, but Netscape seemed to be having troubles with all the new books and really didn't shine quite as much. Netscape began to fall out of popularity.
Then, Netscapes rich uncle, AOL, stepped in to save the day. AOL took Netscape away from school for a while and gave him a new look. Plastic surgery, new cloths full of gadgets bright lights, big buttons, bells, wistles, and a big shiny 6.0 carat diamond earring. After this, Netscape came back to school with a bang. People said, "Ooh, check out Netscape, maybe he is still cool." However, once people started hanging out with Netscape and his new 6.0 carat diamond earring, they realized he was largely all show. On top of that, he was often confusing and it was annoying when he would bring out all his new gadgets at parties. People were once again turned off to Netscape, and since IE was the only other person at school that seemed to know how to get what he wanted from the teachers they decided he was cool enough to be the most popular kid in school. Sure, deep down no body really liked him but that really didn't matter.
Alas, Netscape moved away and soon most people forgot he even existed. Some time later, AOL and IE's rich uncle Bill became friends. AOL decided that IE really was a pretty cool kid. AOL decided that IE was so cool in fact, AOL gave his uncle Bill money to put IE through college. Then, one day, AOL ran into Netscape on the street. They got to talking and AOL said, "You know, you were a really good kid and a lot of people respected you." Netscape responded, "Thanks. Do you think you could help me get back on top?" AOL thought a minute and then said, "You might be onto something." AOL then proceeded to beat the crap out of Netscape and steal his cloths, money, and his entire identity leaving Netscape bleeding and crying, naked in the street. AOL returned home and gave all of Netscape's things to IE and told IE, "Now you can still be yourself but also you can get even further fame by pretending to be Netscape." IE got an evil grin on his face and realized that, with Netscape truley gone and with everyone thinking he was both IE and Netscape, he would no longer have to strive for anything. He could sit on his ass and annoy the hell out of everone and they would like it because they had no one else to turn to.
!hoD
The service will not offer you three credit cards every time you log in, and you wont get disconnected every fifteen minutes!
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
But that was back when netscape really did crash all the time. Not always the fault of netscape, Windows 3.1 wasn't exactly stable, and netscape did use more than it could deliver.
Appearently I'm amoung the few who remember that netscape was themselves evil, and did evil things in their attempt to own the net. I joined the any browser campaign in reaction to netscape, back when microsoft didn't care about the internet.
In a move to cash-in on name recognition, AOL will be naming this service 'Netscape'
Naming it Netscape for name recognition? Is that a variation of the "Good idea" theme? Remember a variation of a good idea is "not a good idea".
ship a Netscape-branded hack of Internet Explorer with the home page set to netscape.com
Seems likely - they're not going to spend much on R&D for the cut-rate service.
Imagine:
Me in 1996: One day Netscape will be nothing but a cut-rate version of AOL running Internet Explorer.
The rest of the Internet: HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH!
Yes, ladies and Gentlemen, the Browser Wars are over. Microsoft beats Netscape, 4 games to 2.
What were the anti-trust remedies again?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
But based on "the Netscape service would be a smaller download" I have to assume that it would be a Netscape-branded Internet Explorer that users would use. Just imagine... "Internet Explorer powered by Netscape" as the IE window title...
This is going to cause so many support headaches, no matter what they do. I really hope they name it something distinct, but I bet you the real thought was to tie it into Netscape the portal and not Netscape the browser.
This is almost causing headaches without thinking about it... "What browser do you use?" "Netscape." "Is that the browser Netscape, the Netscape homepage, or the Netscape service?" I really hope they change the name... so confusing...
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
GREAT.
See, I used to work at Netscape.
Now if I apply for another job, I'm going to have the HR wingnut say "Oh, Netscape! I used to have them for my internet but I kept getting busy signals."
Thanks, AOL! This is even better than the 800 underwater stock options I was given as a "thanks" for them not laying me off. Actually, I would have come out far far ahead if they would have actually laid me off. And oh, how I tried to get laid off. Steve Case never did return my call about the missing espresso machine.. that jerk.
Does AOL have any idea how difficult the naming scheme they're using is going to be for the customer support areas of companies?
I mean, we deal with a lot of customers where I work and browser compatibility is a big issue. Now we'll have to ask 'Are you using Netscape the browser, or Netscape the internet service'.
It'd be like Honda renaming the 'Civic' to 'Toyota':
COMING SOON FROM HONDA, THE 2005 TOYOTA*!
* not actual Toyota automobile
Ok, someone help me out here.
Isnt there a bit of obscure Trademark law that forbids the creation of a new, different product using the same name? I know there are a who slew of instances where a brand name is used on many 'different' products (rolo ice cream, rolos, rolo-bits, rolo-whipped-spread-topping for instance) -- but in order to keep from confusing people, you couldnt release a different product with an 'old name'?
Does someone know what Im talking about?
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Let's face it, the average (grand)mother still think of Netscape 4.x when they hear the name "Netscape". I like Mozilla as much as anyone, but Netscape 4 was a nightmare - and most consumers agree.
Bought out, improved, fielded, and quickly crushed. The service was $14.95/month for unlimited service at a time when AOL itself was going to go unlimited at $19.95/month. They launched service in October 1995 and shut it down in November 1996.
Maybe this is how they'll finally destroy Netscape. AOL has done it to most everything else they've bought, so why break their record, eh?
Graham
Linux - Fast Pane Relief
is in the per-minute charges you quote. I bet the ISP you mention is a telco? They give away the connection for next-to-nothing but get you on the per-minute charges. Since most US phone customers have unlimited local calls as part of the phone service and most (?) ISP's are not telco's that means that there is no such thing as a per-minute-charge to neither the telco or the ISP. That said I agree that a lot of services are much more expensive in the US (I am a Dane who's been in the US for 7 years). For example cable/satellite TV: ~$45/month, DSL: ~$45-$50/month, Phone service: ~$30/month (unlimited local calls). /Claus
and I see slashdot will keep the same icon.
On a related note, to avoid confusion, the Netscape-branded Internet Explorer will be called, "Nozilla"
I remember back in Netscape's glory days, asking someone who their ISP was, and him, thinking for a second, then saying "Netscape."
"Oh," I said, "I didn't know they sold Internet service," and left it at that.
As if people who think they have to open Internet Explorer to "get on the Internet" weren't enough of a problem already...
Compuserve WAS AOL's "semi-cut price" ISP that competed with Prodigy and MSN in terms of retail rebates... Yes, and I do know about Compuserve's much distinguished pre-AOL owned history...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
I know it's sounds too perverse to be true, but AOL really does have its head up its arse that far. Even when they had their own open standards compliant and cross platform browser, arguably much better than IE, they still used IE in their products. I guess they really do like being firmly grasped by the balls by their largest competitor.
If that isn't the definition of short sighted fuck wittery I don't know what is.
1. AOL is removing the biggest star on the net right now. Instant Messaging.
2. It will most likely use a version of IE, which people will call netscape, adding to the confusion (Mozilla is Netscape, IE is Netscape, Netscape is Netscape?)
3. Yet another stab at kiling innovation. At least AOL was playing with new features for the masses (IM, etc). Now it will be making a generic IE browser the popular tool.
Ugh.
(network connectivity is the responsibility of the user)
Evan - needs to hit preview before submitting
Even when they had their own open standards compliant and cross platform browser, arguably much better than IE, they still used IE in their products.
Just in AOL for Windows I think - Compuserve, and AOL for Mac OS X, are currently Gecko-based.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
This is for upstate NY area only as far as I know. Like Syracuse, Rochester and BUffalo but Five95.NET is cheap at 5.95 a month. I used them for 6 months and they're good. plus it's standard dialup. You can use a regular ppp connection settings for Win32, linux, Zeta(BeOS) MAC OSX etc.
it's nice. check it out if you live(d) there.
disclaimer: i am not affiliated with them whatsoever.
Compuserve was retargeded for businesses years ago.
This new service is to replace what Compuserve was at one point.
What "features" can they cut that will lower their overhead? Bundled software? Isn't the incremental cost of that zero, since they've paid to develop it?
Oh,nice - now slashdot can reuse the Netscape icon.
It would not surprise me if AOL for OS X suddenly flipped to the webcore component for its next release, not that it would gain anything from it. As for AOL communicator, I haven't used it so I can't say, but with no Netscape engineers I find it hard to believe AOL have any long terms for Gecko, Mozilla or Netscape anywhere.
During the rash of pay as you go ISPs here in the UK, AOL used the Netscape brand name for their PAYG offering. It was, funnily enough, a cut down dial-up service from AOL but did at least have Netscape as the browser.
I teach adults evening courses on basic computer use, including the Internet.
One of the most difficult concepts to get them to understand is the difference between a browser and an ISP.
Now the line has been completely blurred!
Damn you AOL/TW/Netscape! Damn You!!!!
Many years passed, they started to support PPP, finally got flat rate access. Then AOL bought them and raped the name and turned it into a discount ISP, as if you could get any lower than AOL. Basically, ruined it. Believe it or not, there are a few die-hard compuserve originals on the "classic" service, which is an entirely separate dialup network than AOL/UUnet. I still have an account on compuserve since I can get local dialup access at no extra charge all over the world.
So, I guess AOL, not satisfied with ruining Compuserve (as one can see by some of the other comments here about them) are out to destroy what's left of Netscape too.
Idiots. No wonder Time Warner is embarassed by them.
Hmmm. .
Yup, sounds like Netscape.
------
Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.
I can I be the first person to say;
[netscape]
Me TOoo!!!!1
[/netscape]
Yes, really! Well, no. Not proud of it. Look, I was, like, 10, and my parents got it! My brother and I once sent a greeting card featuring an animated beer mug to my dad for his birthday! He doesn't drink, but that was the best they had.
Any way, yeah, poor CompuServe. Seeing how AOL pwns CompuServe, and it still runs as a budget dialup ISP, I guess this means goodbye CompuServe.
I know you were joking, but I want my Karma, so I'm going to reiterate your post in a serious tone.
What a blessing. Now when new users say what service they're using, "Netscape" can be a valid answer. Uhm . . .
Unless they're using the "Netscape" browser with another service.
Oh shades!
I think they'd do better to market a similar product that was a little more sophisticated to match a more sophisticated computer user. People are starting to discover that their computers come with everything they need to connect to the internet and send e-mail. Even my parents are starting to feel constrained by AOL.
AOL has something that few other companies have: millions of people who send them $20+ per month. However, customers are leaving. Going for the low end will not move them into the future.
Every time I look at the AOL interface, I can't beleive a multi-billion dollar entity would stake its future on that.
In the end, no business can survuive if nobody wants to buy their products.
tomorrow the open source mozilla isp comes out...free...as in beer!
"Netscape" by AOL: Same crappy service, but with a price you can live with. "Netscape" by AOL: Same crappy service for only $9.99; the price most people with a clue have been paying for their internet for the last EIGHT YEARS!!! "Netscape" by AOL: Proof that with even a good price, our service still sucks, and you still wont leave!
EarthLink installation has, for years, always configured everything you needed to use the internet, including installing its own email client and configuring it for your account(s). "EarthLink 5.x" was more of a sandbox paradigm. The new "Total Access" series (2003, 2004) adopt a far less intrusive "toolbar" approach, that keeps everything you need at your fingertibs in a toolbar conveniently positioned on the screen. TotalAccess 2004 also comes with its own e-mail client which is seemlessly integrated with EarthLink's latest spam-blocking features. In any case, from the moment you pop the CD into the computer until you are reading email and "surfing the 'Net", the whole experience is very, very easy.
The difference with AOL is that EarthLink does not require you to use their software to get on-line. If you know what you're doing, you could simply sign-up for a dial-up account online from, say, your work, at the end of which you'd get presented with a screen that gives you all the settings you need to set-it up yourself: mail server (POP/SMTP), news server, http/www address, ftp upload info, NNTP server and all that groovy stuff..
it basically gives you options. If you don't want to think, just pop the CD-in and you're done, if you don't want to use their software, config it yourself. easy.
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
Okay, as you know, we've never been *really* able to sell AOL as a content-delivery service. Our core business remains dial-up ISP services. It's a declining business, but could remain profitable for some time if we keep our costs down.
So here's the plan: we're going to roll our core business into a new brand. It's actually a familiar brand we'll now reposition as a dial-up provider for the masses. Slap the Netscape portal on top of cheap dial-up, and there you go.
Meanwhile, AOL will continue as always. When Time-Warner finally gives us the boot, they'll get AOL's content assets. Those, in turn, will find their way to TW's cable TV division.
At the end of the day, we'll again be a dialup provider under the Netscape brand. But we'll be price-competitive again. Time Warner goes their way, and we go ours.
Okay, there's the strategy portion of our program. Up next, we'll discuss the new AOL-branded Segway scooters. They're the next Big Thing: "So easy to ride, no wonder they're number one."
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
The UK had a Netscape-branded ISP years ago - its portal is still, surprisingly, available and I even have the Netscape Online ISP CD I picked up from a branch of Woolworth (probably the only ISP CD at that time that came with Netscape [4.X] instead of IE !). I have no idea if you can still sign up for Netscape Online in the UK - anyone got any ideas (the portal gives no clue)? I reckon you'll just sign up with AOL if you tried that old CD now :-)
This is kinda funny. Me and a few of my friends had an ongoing joke about how people would always call their ISP 'Netscape' or 'Internet Explorer'. I'm sure some of you tech savvy people out there know what I mean, a lot of ignorant people assumed because their browser said Netscape that this must be their ISP. Seems the joke is now on us...
...today SCO announced the release of a new lighter version of Linux, that is unencumbered by the GPL, and the feature bloat that is rampant in the Linux software stack. And thanks to SCO's innovative IBCS technology you'll be able to run your fav Linux apps unaltered on SCO's new OS.
A SCO representative stated that they'd be marketing this product under the name "UNIXWare".
It would be quight nice if they built the Capabilty to Acess this into Netscape Navagator for Linux. Aol does have one Upside to it one can go aneey ware and find a local acess number (US AOL accounts evin work on AOL Japan) for the people who are forced to travle and have to provide thire own dile up access this could be quight nice and well it would also be nive not to have to foire up win 90 on VM ware to use it
what cheap linux/unix friendly dial ups work well?
which ones to avoid? cheap meaning $10/month or less.
any have linux friendly tech support?
This is great but wouldn't it mean Mozilla (and by extention Linux) could recieve wide reconition in mainstream (read: stupid people) culture, of the inferior alternative to proprietary software? I hope I'm wrong here but we all have to be really careful before we jump to premature conclusions. Never underestimate the power of proprietary marketing.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Well, that is for unformed users that don't know anything about the Netscape name
However, for those that do:
if they ever used:
Netscape 4: no way they'll use this service
Netscape 5: doesn't really exist
Netscape 6(sorry Mozilla fans): no way they'll use this service, too slow
Netscape 7(sorry Mozilla fans): no way they'll use this service, too slow
OTOH
Netscape 2: Gold-no pun intended- the best browser of it's time
Netscape 3: Gold-no pun intended- the best browser of it's time
Why O Why did the Mozilla/Netscape people try to build the Mozilla off of the open sourced Netscape 4.x, had they built it off of the last good Netscape, 3.x, they wouldn't have even lost the browser war...hell if they even an had made a 3.x skin for mozilla they might have even won(Classic? and Modern are ugly)
Bring back Netscape 3.x gold...w/ javascript improvements...
Time Warner AOL has now removed AOL from it's name, so as to be less 'confusing'.
Of course it doesn't care about confusion generated from the use of the 'netscape' name...
SCIREV.NET - fanfics,reviews & more
I think this is a case of dinosaurs mating. When you go to the netscape.com link, an AOL add pops up in a seperate window.
Looks to me like Netscape and AOL are in bed together on this for brand recognition and revenue purposes...
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
I read "disconnected" instead of "discounted". Then again, that's something that AOL would probably be able to come up with...
I mean the literal sense. No pun intended.
Unfortunately it does more often than not.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."