Netscape WebMail to be killed by AIM after Calacanis experiment

FORMER ONLINE GIANT AOL has quietly announced that, starting August 19, you will no longer be able to sign up for a free "Netscape.net" webmail account.

However, the company insists in the FAQ page whose link was mass mailed to existing @netscape.net users - that access to existing accounts will continue, but this time using the AIM Webmail interface. The company calls this an "upgrade", although it feels like a downgrade of the Netscape brand to me.

Netscape Webmail R.I.P.: no more new accounts accepted on August 19, 2006

As I noted in my review of AIM Webmail, by mid 2005 AOL retrofitted the AIM webmail interface to also serve Netscape Webmail accounts, just limiting them -in a very silly or perhaps intentional move- to 250mb instead of giving Netscape web mail users the full 2GB offered to AIM.com visitors. I wrote back then: "I'm left wondering: AOL has done a good job and retrofitted this new AIM.com mail back end to also serve the @netscape.net free webmail accounts, giving a choice of using the old html interface or the new AIM.com DHTML one, so why keep the 250MB limit in place for Netscape.net accounts, and why not enabling true imap access for those as well?. INQuiring minds want to know."

Old HTML interface of Netscape Webmail

The proverbial last nail in the coffin

This isn't the first failed experiment with the Netscape brand name on which AOL's marketing robots have engaged, annoying every time whatever remaining loyal audience still remained with the site. First it changed the selection of news towards a more "pop culture/teenager" flavour. Back then I wrote: "what was once a well designed, visually attractive news portal ended up as a mix of pop star news, movie news, and assorted ads, all mixed into a blender with CNN world headlines".

Back in February 2005 the company launched a beta of "Netscape Broadband" an annoying, ugly Flash-only rendering of the Netscape.com portal page. See the story titled "New Flash-infested Netscape.com portal beta disappoints". Lately, it dumped the portal concept altogether and decided that the familiar Netscape.com new portal web page was going to be a "social news site" -in other words, a Digg clone. A move which generated a noticeable backlash from some Netscape.com users. Perhaps what irks some of these users -including myself- was the total lack of care for the feelings and needs of the existing Netscape.com visitors. I mean, did the clever execs conduct a poll by e-mail to its existing user base? I surely wasn't alerted about the impending change or that the "beta" was going to permanently replace the classic portal site.

Before the site "redesign" earlier this month which turned the classic portal into a "social news site" -the company means "Digg clone" by this phrase, not to be confused with socially relevant news-, Netscape.com was already profitable and received ten million hits per month, according to IT news blog SiliconBeat which quoted Jason Calacanis, the Bill Gates admirer turned AOL executive and Weblogs Inc. founder who says "Microsoft is playing nice in the ecosystem" and who is apparently the guy responsible for the destruction of the classic Netscape.com portal just to justify the launch of his next web toy project.

What is perhaps even more ironic is that Netscape.com would still be the familiar portal some users learned to love -and apparently ten million of them loaded the page per month- although the number has been falling lately according to Alexa-, all while the new "social news" toy project by Mr. Calacanis would have co-existed with it. Then the marketplace, and the web surfers, would have been able to vote with their hits what site they preferred to use. But no, it had to destroy the old one. The story on Silicon Beat shows that the Netscape.com brand name was selected among different brands -sealing the fate of the old netscape.com portal when the choice was made-. The article reads "Calacanis said AOL considered launching the site under different brands; Calacanis himself originally thought it might come out under the Weblogs Inc. name. But Netscape works, too, he says".

No more Netscape.net webmail sign-ups after August 19

While the company claims that the Webmail switch from Netscape.net to the AIM.com webmail service will be an "upgrade", and insist that existing users will continue accessing their classic netscape.net accounts, it's quite clear that the company is not "killing" Netscape.net webmail, they are putting the service "to rest" forever for new users, keeping old accounts in life suspension mode. A question on the FAQ reads: "Can I still sign up for a new Netscape Mail account?", and the answer is quite strong: "No. New Netscape Mail accounts are no longer being accepted. With the added advantages of AIM Mail, we believe new users will be completely satisfied with the AIM Mail service". They also spin the death of the traditional Netscape portal as something positive "Is Netscape being phased out / going away? No. Netscape.com has recently re-launched as a social news portal".

AIM.com DHTML interface shared by Netscape Webmail by mid-2005

In that sense, the "shutdown" of the free Netscape Webmail service for new users, planned to start on August 19, signals the end of the "Netscape" brand name associated with traditional web portal a la Yahoo. AOL's marketing execs have finally won and AIM.com has replaced Netscape as both webmail and as portal offering - users looking for a traditional news portal are being told to "check out AOL.com".

AIM Webmail: @netscape.net accounts will be moved here

The webmail switch is strange, since Netscape.net already ran the same user interface as AIM.com webmail, why not keep both working at the same time?. Marketing people call it "market segmentation", in fact AOL could have the two brand names co-existing and targeting two different demographic bases: Netscape.net for the tech savvy, and Aim.com for the "general population". But no, killing Netscape seems to have been a secret wish of some AOL managers, and with the help of Mr. Calacanis, it might have succeeded in removing that annoying Netscape Netcenter portal user base the company inherited from the Netscape acquisition back in 1998.

What neither Calacanis nor the FAQ page explains is how this "move" to AIM.com will work out in instances where some people -this scribbler included- have name@aim.com and also name@netscape.net as two separate email accounts. Since the log-in page for AIM webmail only takes a "screen name" -AOLspeak for the name before the @ sign- I wonder how the log-in page will know what account the user is referring to. But I'm sure a wise guy like Mr. Calacanis can hire some people to work things out.

The good news is that those outraged by the change -or who knows, perhaps pleased by it- can voice their displeasure to JasonCalacanis on AIM or email jason at calacanis dot com, although I personally think not even Ted Leonsis can perform a magic act and have the good old portal refloated, unless those outraged AIM their e-mails - pun intended - higher on the company's organisation chart. µ

Related reading
Users petition to 'save the old Netscape.com'
Netscape.com "community backlash after site redesign" (July 1, 2006)
Old Netscape coots invade Jason Calacanis' blog
AOL's Calacanis on the 're-launch of Netscape.com' as Digg clone
AOL copies Digg
New Netscape.com did not catch on, claim
Interactive Netscape site gets some sour responses (NY Times)

See also
New Flash-infested Netscape.com portal beta disappoints
AIM.com free web mail is surprisingly good, but how about giving Netscape.net IMAP4 access?
AOL cripples Netscape Radio listening, imposes limits
AOL to create yet another free webmail service, shocker
AOL assimilated by the Microsoft Borg