Not Giving Up
AOL isn't giving up on the social news site now housed at Netscape.com. Last week, AOL announced that the social news site will be rebaptized Propeller and moved to Propeller.com.
However, Propeller could face an uphill branding battle, considering the history of its Web address.
According to cached pages found at the Internet Archive, Propeller.com belonged to PropHead Development Inc., which specialized in digital set-top boxes.
PropHead was acquired by AOL Time Warner -- now known as Time Warner, parent company of AOL--in 2000. Archive.org's last cached snapshot for the Propeller.com address dates from January 2002. At press time, Propeller.com is empty of content.
As a portal, Netscape.com will feature news articles handpicked by its editors instead of visitors, along with a search engine and links to AOL and Netscape services and content. Netscape.com's forthcoming format is at an alternate address.
Basically, it looks a lot like it did before its social news transformation. One change: AOL plans to establish links between Netscape.com and Propeller.com.
It remains to be seen if the latest plan to revitalize the once mighty Netscape.com will propel it to new heights or see it sputter into oblivion.
What's clear is that AOL once had a portal jewel in its hands.
"AOL really wasted an opportunity when they bought Netscape. They didn't do enough to leverage the site's traffic and brand. They basically sat on it. It was a strategic blunder," Sterling said.
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