AOL dropping ‘social news’ section from Netscape.com
AOL is once again revamping its Netscape.com Web portal, dropping a year-old “social news” component in which visitors submitted news stories and blog entries and voted on them to determine how they’re ranked on the site.
AOL, the Internet services unit of Time Warner Inc., said it wasn’t giving up on social news completely and would instead send interested visitors to a separate, yet-to-be-determined Web address.
However, AOL said visitor feedback indicated that “people really do associate the Netscape brand with providing mainstream news that is editorially controlled.” In a blog posting, the company said some readers liked the social-news experience “but simply didn’t expect to find it on Netscape.com.”
The feature received tepid response when it was introduced last summer. Over the last year, U.S. visitors to the Netscape home page dropped by about half to 2.4 million in July, according to ComScore Media Metrix. By contrast, visitors to social-news rival Digg.com nearly quadrupled to 4.6 million.
Netscape’s social-news feature has allowed visitors to submit links to articles they find elsewhere and vote on the ones they like most. The items receiving the most votes appear on the home page and in separate sections such as technology and food.
