Filed under: Web services, Social Software
Netscape.com surpasses 50,000 members
Feisty young social news site Netscape.com, raised from the ashes of the old Netscape portal about 10 weeks ago, gained its 50,000th member today. (Disclosure: Download Squad and Netscape.com are both AOL properties, and I'm one of Netscape's Navigators.) The 50,000th member goes by the name of zvyozd, which frankly sounds like an alias to me. Though some people would argue that arbitrary milestones like this are meaningless, I do love seeing all those zeros lined up. My back-of-the-envelope calculations say that equates to about 5,000 new members per week (duh), and more than 700 per day. Congrats C.K., Jason, zvyozd, and all of the hard-working Netscape developers, anchors, navigators, and members. In case you're into such things, you can watch the new members, stories, votes, and comments roll in on the Netscape Tracker.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh said 1:23PM on 8-31-2006
I don't know if you are being sarcastic with the "it sounds like an alias part," but if you're not its the Russian word for star (as in the kind in the sky).
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Jordan Running said 1:30PM on 8-31-2006
Yes, I was trying to be funny, Josh. But thanks for the Russian lesson!
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Bill said 1:40PM on 8-31-2006
Meanwhile, Digg users are predicting Netscape's demise:
"Now that the hype surrounding Netscape's social bookmarking endeavor has died down, reality is setting in. According to Alexaholic, after Netscape's initial buzz, it has been progressively losing its user base."
http://digg.com/tech_news/It_s_Official_Netscape_is_a_Sinking_Ship
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Eliot Phillips said 1:38PM on 8-31-2006
Looks more like: star (what Josh wishes he had more of) ;-)
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Aaron said 5:11PM on 8-31-2006
Its just a crummy version of Digg.com, seriously, does anyone actually think netscape is useful anymore?
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Jordan Running said 5:22PM on 8-31-2006
Bill: Digg users have been joyously predicting Netscape's demise since its very first day in operation. And if you look at the Alexa graph, you'll see that Netscape was in a steady decline (it was losing visitors) up until the new site was launched, and since then it has flattened out (it has stopped losing visitors)--that's an accomplishment in itself.
Aaron: Yes--50,000 of them, apparently.
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David Chartier said 5:42PM on 8-31-2006
Apparently anyone who tries to build on a good idea and bring something else or new to the table is 'destined to fail' and a 'worthless carbon copy.'
In that case, Google should probably back its bags, as Yahoo! beat everyone to the table with a search engine. Honda, VW? They'd better close up shop, cuz Ford spanked them ages ago too.
Netscape brings other social news and journalism ideas to the table that digg doesn't have. Digg does some great stuff, and I'm an active member. Netscape does some other interesting stuff, and I'm a member there too.
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Aaron said 5:55PM on 8-31-2006
"Apparently anyone who tries to build on a good idea and bring something else or new to the table is 'destined to fail' and a 'worthless carbon copy.'"
yes, if its a poor copy.
Google has succeeded, because it is a vast improvement on Yahoo's original search technology.
netscape offers no significant advantage over Digg, its a business attempt at stealing market share. On top of that, it has been (rumored at least) to have been inflating # of users, stealing Digg stories, and promoting itself with zombie users.
I have to say, I am increasingly worried when these nice blogs, such as downloadsquad, are gobbled up and run by one large company. I've been reading this since it was started, and I heavily dislike the increasing number of Weblogs Inc promotional posts.
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Jordan Running said 6:19PM on 8-31-2006
I'd like to see references for any of your accusations, Aaron. 1) There's no user inflation going on. 5,000 users per week--you can watch them right there in the Tracker--what's there to inflate? 2) How can you "steal" a story from another site? If a Digg user sees a link at Slashdot or Metafilter and posts it to Digg, did he "steal" it from them? If it's a good story, of course it's gonna get posted on Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, Netscape, blah, blah blah. 3) LOL. I'll be sure to ask C.K. if he's seen any walking dead.
Just so you know, Download Squad (and all of its sister blogs) have all been owned by a single company, Weblogs, Inc. since Day 1, and were never "gobbled up." Now Weblogs, Inc. is part of AOL, and apart from me getting my paycheck direct deposit instead of by mail, little has changed. I made this post of my own volition with no prompting, urging, or even hinting by anyone at AOL or Weblogs, Inc. or anywhere else, because I think it's newsworthy.
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Fabulo said 7:04PM on 8-31-2006
You have to admit AOL did not do a lot to save Netscape. Not to say they are responsible for the fall to oblivion to the once greatest web browser, but the AOL touch did not exactly turn them into gold.
For no good reason, Netscape got rebranded to a portal, then to a rip off of a successful web site. Fine. It's your right to set up shop next to the competitor and do exactly the same thing. It's a free Internet.
I undestand the compelling call of the employer to self promote, but really, it tarnishes your (veil of) integrity. I know, you're gonna tell me you have never been given explicit instructions to promote other branch of the AOL-Timewarner thing. Sure.
Finally, I just paid a visit to netscape.com. All the stories have 'vote' counts from 20 to 50, rarely over that. Stuff on digg have between 200 and 1600 'diggs'. Unless these numbers are not comparable, digg was the one deserving the hurrays.
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Aaron said 7:10PM on 8-31-2006
http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback126.html
http://krose.typepad.com/kevinrose/2006/07/calacanis.html
http://www.businessclock.com/2006/08/28/digg-vs-netscape/
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Aaron said 7:10PM on 8-31-2006
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/AOL_s_Weblogs_Inc_Human_Spambots
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/How_Jason_Calacanis_s_Weblogs_Inc_systematically_games_spams_Digg
http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2161641/netscape-reveals-paid-social
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Aaron said 7:10PM on 8-31-2006
http://tech.netscape.com/story/2006/07/17/old-vs-new-netscape/
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Jordan Running said 7:18PM on 8-31-2006
I said references, Aaron, by which I mean direct quotes (or line/paragraph numbers) in the form of facts--not rumors or speculation--from people who actually know what they're talking about. You're so desperate to prove all of these accusations, the burden is on you to do the footwork.
And Fabulo, I agree with you that AOL's handling of the Netscape browser was botched and very unfortunate, and I also agree that Digg is a fantastic site--I visit it several times daily, almost as often as Netscape--that has accomplished a lot.
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Keith said 7:39PM on 8-31-2006
I'm sorry, are we supposed to be impressed at 50,000 users in 10 weeks, after the tens of millions of dollars the Netscape brand once represented? Given the millions of people that have downloaded Firefox, or have registered with My Yahoo, or use MySpace? I would actually consider only 50K users in this amount of time a dismal failure.
I defended a post here a few weeks ago as not being particularly promotional, but I'm sorry, I think this one is. It's not helped by the fact that Jordan's replies to Aaron are getting increasingly more defensive and less neutral, though I certainly acknowledge that it's hard to stay calm when all these accusations of being sold out to the big corporation start flying around. The conspiracy theories and "AOL is evil" mantras do get old after a while.
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Aaron said 7:42PM on 8-31-2006
fair enough.
Incidentally, why are page visits dropping if there are now more users? Shouldn't it be the opposite?
http://tinyurl.com/jms6w
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Jordan Running said 8:26PM on 8-31-2006
Aaron: Looking at the Alexa graph I can't see any measurable drop in pageviews since the beginning of July. The past few days shows a bit of a dip--possibly attributed to this week's site upgrade, which caused some problems, but that's just speculation--but a few days just isn't statistically significant. Considering that pageviews were significantly declining literally for years before the debut of the new site, the fact that they've flattened out is an achievement. The site is brand new--if the pageviews are still flat (or declining) four or five months from now, I'll be a lot more interested in that discussion.
And you're right, Keith, I am defensive, perhaps overly so. But not only are the people I work for suffering ad hominem attacks and totally false (and, frankly, bizarre beyond reason) accusations on a daily basis, but I am being accused of "shilling for the man" simply for promoting a site that I enjoy using and think others might, too. Perhaps I'll feel differently in the morning, but right now my indignation seems justified.
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