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AOL Targets Digg, YouTube With New Netscape Site

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the both-cream-and-scum-rise-to-the-top dept.

Dotnaught writes "AOL has re-launched its Netscape.com portal as a place where user participation is balanced by moderator control. The renovated site will feature community-driven news and user-submitted video, guided by editors called anchors. "The hive mind sometimes doesn't do a thorough job," says Jason Calacanis, CEO of Weblogs, Inc., a blog network acquired last year by AOL."

19 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. As Yoda says by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fear leads to anchors, anchors lead to hate..

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    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  2. Quelle surprise... by sl8r · · Score: 2

    The earth goes round the sun, the middle east still has some.. ah... "problems", and Netscape STILL doesn't get it.

  3. Targetting Slashdot, too? by DikSeaCup · · Score: 2, Funny

    If they're targetting Digg (which I've never bothered to go to), aren't they targetting Slashdot somewhat too? Probably not a good idea though ... the editors just need to post two or three "netscape.com" stories a day. We'll see just how capable their site is at handling traffic ...

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    I talk about stuff.
    1. Re:Targetting Slashdot, too? by antic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've always figured that I visited Slashdot often because of its timely updates. I liked to think that if aliens invaded the Earth, I'd probably hear about it via Slashdot before the local news. Now I think I'd hear about it through Digg first, and then wait for it to appear on Slashdot a day or so later so that I could read the comments (which are pretty retarded on Digg).

      Back on topic, the Netscape site is a pretty blatant rip-off of the Digg format - have they no shame? Not only is it the same format, but it's laid out in such a similar fashion. Not particularly imaginative.

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      'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
  4. Ackkk it's recursive by technoextreme · · Score: 4, Funny

    I click on the Netscape headline about how it's a ripoff of Digg which leads to an article about how Netscape is ripping off of Digg which links back to the Netscape article about how it's a ripoff of Digg which leads to an article about how Netscape is ripping off of Digg. Also, Netscape is using those stupid popup adds that get around Firefox.

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    Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
  5. Aol copies digg by minus_273 · · Score: 3, Funny

    this is the top story right now. which is kind of fitting

    --
    The war with islam is a war on the beast
    The war on terror is a war for peace
  6. and hate leads to... by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 2, Funny

    A project fork. :)

  7. I believe this by rolfwind · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The renovated site will feature community-driven news and user-submitted video, guided by editors called anchors.


    Is called /. - except for maybe the video. Why is it being compared more closely to digg?
    1. Re:I believe this by Trigun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is being compared more closely to digg due to the minor fact that it's pretty much a ripoff of digg, and not slashdot.
      Although, I honestly don't care about them ripping it off. If it's a good idea, and you think you can make it better, go for it.

    2. Re:I believe this by rolfwind · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Never mind, I take it back. It's not closer to either, but a hybrid of slashdot/digg, taking features of either. It has more voting, ala digg, but as far as I can tell, it has comment system more like /.

      I'm hoping the reply system is more like /., on Digg you can only reply directly to the 1st gen comments and it makes getting a decent conversation started difficult.

  8. Not targeting Digg... by killeena · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They aren't targeting Digg, they are using the idea of Digg. Digg is a site for tech news, and AOL is using the same format for general news.

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    Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices. -Theodor Adorno
    1. Re:Not targeting Digg... by nsmike · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, they're trying to beat Digg to that market. http://www.valleywag.com/tech/digg/scoop-exclusive -screenshots-reveal-digg-v3-will-cover-all-news-18 0760.php

  9. Terrible design by Odiumjunkie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The page looks absolutely awful. The colour scheme is weak and amateurish, the AJAX is terribly, terribly slow, the "visit site" link (the most important button on a content portal) is, bizarrely, smaller than any other element in the article summary and hard to see against the site background, the adverts interrupt the placement of the content... overall, it's a total mess that looks like it's been thrown together with no real coherent plan. The worst type of imitation.

    1. Re:Terrible design by Odiumjunkie · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oh god, I hadn't even noticed the huge, ugly, slow frame that sticks with you if you follow any article link - because just what you need when a site slow due to high traffic is extra, totally pointless stuff to load and code to process.

  10. Pointless: Fark content meets Digg layout... by bigmouth_strikes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What it all boils down to is still the quality of the comments that the users post. Nothing else. There are dozens and dozens of story submission sites with some sort of social networking thingie, but it's really uninteresting unless there is a userbase with knowledge, experience, diversity and some degree of communication skills.

    That is why sites like Digg et al is a miserable failure from that aspect; the comment section is entirely uninteresting and the intolerance and mob-mentality is mind-numbing. As a tool for staying within a 24hrs of the technology (hype) curve it is successful.

    I read Slashdot for the comments and Digg/Playboy for the articles...

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    Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
    1. Re:Pointless: Fark content meets Digg layout... by christopherfinke · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Is there an ironic tag for posting this on Slashdot?
      Slashdot's comment section is invaluable; when browsing at +2 (or even +1), you'll find that 95%+ of the comments are from well-educated, literate users who have useful (or at least humorous) information about the subject at hand. Possibly 0.5% of Digg's commenters could comment at Slashdot without appearing out of place; the other 99.5% will have to wait until they graduate from middle school at the very least.
    2. Re:Pointless: Fark content meets Digg layout... by The_REAL_DZA · · Score: 3, Funny
      What it all boils down to is still the quality of the comments that the users post.





      YEAH!
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  11. Re:Who's their target? by French+Mailman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think that AOL is simply trying to surf the "Web 2.0" wave. They are, once again, looking for content. That was already one of the rationales behind the merger with Time Warner a few years back. Except now, their strategy is different. Instead of merging with another big company for content, they want users to provide the content themselves. Getting users to post stuff and comment on it, for free, is a way cheaper way to get content than getting involved in a multi-billion merger.

    My guess is that it won't work in this particular case. While users are willing to contribute to such "community Web 2.0 projects" such as Digg or Wikipedia, they probably won't have the same attitude towards a big business like AOL.

  12. The Mind by intangible · · Score: 3, Funny

    For some reason I read the article summary as this:

    'The AOL has re-gurgitated its Netscape.com portal as a place where user
    participation is monitored by master-controllers. The renovated site
    will feature minion-driven news and peon-submitted video, guided
    by godlike editor entities called anchors. "The hive mind sometimes
    doesn't do a thorough job", says The Queen, Overlord of Weblogs, Inc.,
    a mind-control network acquired last year by the AOL.'

    Don't ask me why...