Propeller Launches; Netscape Becomes Portal Again

If you have been a user of Netscape (the social news site), then you have heard about the planned changes being made by AOL to revert Netscape.com back to being a basic web portal.

Well, those changes have gone into effect today, as the successor to the social news site made its debut with a new URL and name, Propeller.com.

If you are looking for new features or innovations, look elsewhere, because there is nothing new here, other than the logo and name.

With the launch of Propeller, I was expecting to see a complete redesign of the service, even if only visually, but it appears that AOL execs have decided to take the easy route by simply moving the entire old site to the new domain, changing the logo, and changing instances of the 'Netscape' name to 'Propeller.' Nothing else here seems to have been changed. Not even the colors!

To make matters even worse, there is not even anything new about the replacement portal for the Netscape.com domain. If you take a look at the screenshots below, you will see that Netscape.AOL.com happens to be an exact copy of AOL.com with a different default color scheme (both sites allow users to change the colors). Same top stories, same content, and even the same advertisement. The only exception is the addition of Propeller modules on the Netscape site. Why does AOL see the need for two identical sites?

This makes me wonder why AOL tried to generate all of this buzz around its "changes," when there is nothing available now, that users could not access before. A quicker and more logical plan would have been to keep Netscape how it was, and put a large banner in the sidebar leading to AOL.com for those who desire. In the weeks leading up to this change, that is what was done, only the banner led visitors to Netscape.AOL.com (the new homepage), rather than AOL.com, which contains the exact same information.

An even better solution is Loren Baker's suggestion that "AOL should have served a choice for Netscape visitors to view the new Propeller.com or the traditional AOL powered news portal."

Hopefully, as AOL receives more feedback and as the sites mature, Netscape and Propeller will both get some changes that help them stand out among the crowd. AOL is still experimenting with strategies since its internet subscription service is no longer its cash cow.