Tag: netscape

In case the news hasn’t reached everyone yet, Netscape will update it’s release sometime early this summer, speculated to be based on Mozilla 1.7.

Personally, I wonder who will be actually coordinating this update? And secondly, why not wait until Firefox is released, and market it as Netscape 8.0 Light, and make a pro version for use with it’s new ISP. At least that makes much more logical sense from a business point of view. It would allow them to promote their new business model by using their old business model. They can also advertise their service as having all the wonderful feature Firefox has. Could release Mac/Linux version as well. Capture that part of the market.

Then again, who said AOL/Netscape made logical sense from a business point of view? After all, it’s now known as: AOLTW for a good reason.

A report claims that AOL is planning to create Netscape 8.0. But it won’t be a browser. But an ISP. I’ve got some grief about this for several reasons:

1. Confusing to the end user. Netscape was a popular browser. Then Netscape died. “Mozilla is Netscape, just better” became the cry. Now Netscape is an ISP. Very confusing. Not good.
2. It’s expected to be strictly an ISP, no bloat. Not even AOL’s AIM service. Instant Messaging is considered to be the new golden child of the Internet. Yet not included into the service. Hmm? Granted they could just download AIM. Still got to wonder.
3. Killing the little innovation. Lets face it, like AOL or not, they did innovate quite a bit. They managed to bring Instant Messaging to the masses for example. As well as many internet tools. Perhaps childlike. But they brought them.

My guess is that this will be somewhat successful, but I doubt it will save them from their present situation. Here is how I break it down: