What AOL (and Mozilla) Should Do With Netscape

Henry Blodget | December 29, 2007 8:42 AM

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Now that AOL (TWX) has officially killed the already dead Netscape browser, here's what the company should do with the brand and portal that remain: Sell them to Mozilla/Firefox. Mozilla should then rebrand the Firefox browser "Netscape Firefox," connect it to a retooled Netscape portal, and have another go at Microsoft's IE.

Firefox's steady erosion of IE's market share within tech-savvy circles has been astonishing. The open source strategy is working, and having gathered a fanatical core user base, the product is now poised to break into the mainstream. The challenge from here will be building mass-market recognition and trust of the "Firefox" and "Mozilla" brands, which mainstream consumers are still either unaware of or frightened by.

The Netscape brand, meanwhile, still resonates with some mainstream consumers, who remember the hullabaloo surrounding Netscape's 1995 IPO and still occasionally refer to all online browsers as "Netscape" (at least one in this household does).  The current Netscape portal is just a re-skinned AOL.com portal, which itself is just a re-skinned (and inferior) Yahoo. What would a better and unique Netscape portal look like? We have no brilliant ideas here just yet, but we have no doubt that they Mozilla community can come up with some.

The deal could be cash, which AOL needs, or stock, which could yield a far bigger payout if the Mozilla strategy succeeds. It could also include traffic/carriage, ad-sales, content licensing, and other terms that would help AOL over the long haul. In short, it could allow AOL to salvage something from the Netscape debacle and save one of the Internet's most iconic brands.

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22 Comments

SerJi (URL) said:
Thanks.
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backlink ölçmek (URL) said:
yes, it is, that's why I'm sure AOL never considered putting the Netscape brand up for sale - they know how bad it would look if there were no takers
Bill (URL) said:
The Netscape browser has a great cache but the last vew versions of it have just been repackaged Firefox code anyhow so it seems that we're already more than half way there. BTW here's where you can find some great free browser plug-ins.
Harald Felgner said:
We installed Mosaic, we installed MacWeb, but then immediately switched to Netscape which remained our browser for ever since or at least until 2000; …
Joel P said:
Other rebrandings Firefox might want to consider before using the Netscape brand are "New Coke Firefox", "Ishtar Firefox", or "Compuserve Firefox". Or, given the epic battle against Microsoft domination that Netscape promised and then threw, how about "Maginot Line Firefox"?

Netscape has *zero* cachet with 99% of "mainstream consumers", and strong negative associations for tech-savvy consumers who can't believe how Netscape blew itself up so totally that Microsoft didn't even have a chance to kill it.
Marah Marie said:
@ Mr. Blodget:

"I would think the 501c3 parent would welcome holding a few billion-worth of stock in a for-profit company--the same way Google's non-profit owns a big chunk of Google stock. I imagine that this will eventually be seen as an attractive alternative."

Yes, that makes sense. I never thought of it from that angle.

"No question that the Netscape brand is a shadow of its former self..."

Yes, it is, that's why I'm sure AOL never considered putting the Netscape brand up for sale - they know how bad it would look if there were no takers.

"...but I think after a couple of years in the right hands it could regain some of its prestige."

Agreed. There's nothing wrong with the Netscape browser except that the code for it is about one version and some change behind the current version of Firefox. It's a good browser, though.

"I also don't think the browser should be renamed "Netscape." I think the company should be called Netscape and the browser Firefox."

I think AOL should ditch every bit of software they've ever made (except for AIM, which has been a success for them) and just work on updating the code for the Netscape browser, then re-name it the AOL Browser or some such thing, and spend as much time, effort and money marketing it as they once did marketing AOL discs.

"(Netscape's original browser, after all, was called "Navigator," which is indeed antiquated--though no more so than "Internet Explorer," which now sounds vaguely ridiculous)."

Ha, yes, agreed again. Ever type it into your Run box or into Taskbar's address bar? It's 'iexplore.exe'. 'I Explore' - get it? What a great sense of humor those MS devs must have had.

I like the name 'Firefox." It's vague and classy and sounds like a lot of fun, all at the same time.
Netscaper01 said:
puhleese, anything AOL touches turns to crap. Leave Mozilla alone. let it shine without AOL's mud stuck on its face.
Dan Frommer said:
About a week ago there was an interesting discussion on one of the NY Tech listservs where a couple people said that IE has improved itself to include many 'Firefox-like' features and isn't such a shabby choice anymore. I don't run Windows, so I can't verify this, but seeing what a resource hog Firefox is on a Mac these days, I don't doubt it.

Regardless, IE didn't get its market share by being a better (or even good) browser. The folks at Firefox should focus on distribution deals so it's on every new Mac and PC (and maybe even the out-of-the-box default browser with some OEMs, if possible). Some performance enhancing fixes are also in order, because mainstream users will not accept a "buggy, but better!" browser the same way techies will.

(Also, please fix whatever you need to fix so italicized text looks less horrible. There's no reason Firefox's text rendering should look any less beautiful than Safari's -- on both platforms.)
Mark Evans said:
I'm really not sure whether Netscape has any value as an asset, as well as strategically to Firefox. Sure, it still has some users but the question is whether Firefox needs to buy them. Frankly, it's doesn't. So what does AOL do with Netscape? Maybe sell it to Facebook if Facebook has any interest in getting into the browser game?
Peter Kasting said:
It has been so long since "Netscape" has been a relevant brand on the web that I question whether it would actually be a superior choice to "Mozilla". Firefox, for example, has something like 50x the market share of Netscape. If Netscape is such a great brand, where are all the "unaware of Firefox, but like Netscape" browser users?
SistaAdmin said:
AOL + Firefox? even if rebranded? Yuck!!

Like AOL + TimeWarner ??

Like AOL + Netscape ??

What's next? AOL + "any US tech entity" ??

The whole country will be in the tech doldrums before you can blink an eye!!

Has anything succeeded that merged in some manner with AOL.

Merge with AOL at your own peril, and watch your brand melt away.

Please never make it so!!

Henry Blodget said:
I would think the 501c3 parent would welcome holding a few billion-worth of stock in a for-profit company--the same way Google's non-profit owns a big chunk of Google stock. I imagine that this will eventually be seen as an attractive alternative.

No question that the Netscape brand is a shadow of its former self, but I think after a couple of years in the right hands it could regain some of its prestige. I also don't think the browser should be renamed "Netscape." I think the company should be called Netscape and the browser Firefox. (Netscape's original browser, after all, was called "Navigator," which is indeed antiquated--though no more so than "Internet Explorer," which now sounds vaguely ridiculous).

Probably true that it's moot, however.
Marah Marie said:
"...here's what the company should do with the brand and portal that remain: Sell them to Mozilla/Firefox. Mozilla should then rebrand the Firefox browser "Netscape Firefox," connect it to a retooled Netscape portal, and have another go at Microsoft's IE."

I was going to point out that Mozilla is a non-profit, so such a move could not benefit AOL materially, but luckily the President has jumped in to correct that assumption.

My idea was for AOL to scrap all their browsers and portals (AOL 9.0 VR, 9.1, AOL Desktop, AOL Explorer, ad nasuem), rebrand the current Netscape browser as an AOL product (or an AOL/Netscape product if such a name would better suit them) and pour *all* their browser marketing efforts into pushing it onto the masses, perhaps not as a Firefox killer, but at least, as a good equivalent - just as IE has dozens of excellent shell knockoffs like Avant, Maxthon, etc.

I personally never could stand IE, but before I switched to Firefox I used Avant in place of it. When I left Avant I did not jump right to Firefox; I used Orca, which is made by the Avant dev with the same Gecko engine that Firefox uses. After I used Orca for close to a year I got tired of the crashes, so I switched to Firefox. So by taking baby steps I found my way to the best browser of all time.

I didn't include Netscape in that journey because just a year or two ago it still had pop-ups and what I call invasive, malicious settings, designed to track your activity and lead you to AOL's approved sites. I hated it. But with the latest version all that has been stripped out, and what is left is Firefox's engine, and the ability to add, I believe, almost any plugin on mozilla.org.

My Netscape browser is configured exactly like my Firefox browser - same plugin list - same skin - same mods to about:config.

Now that Netscape is that close to being Firefox all over again, I say AOL would've done much better for themselves pushing it to the masses any way they could and stop support and development for other browsers and portals. No one is going to want to use the AOL browsers just a year or two from now. They won't. There will be few fond memories of those products, but Netscape is another thing altogether.
Andrew Baron said:
I have to agree with Rex on this one. I was there back in the day for the big 2-story blow up Godzilla air balloons and loved the brand. But its a weak brand nowadays.

Firefox is already up against IE. Aside from amazing growth in the US, take a look at market share of Firefox outside of the US.

Branding-wise, I think the Firefox brand is bold, strong and right on target to take over IE soon in every country.
Rex Sorgatz said:
I've been watching closely for the past few months, and this site has been quite good in rolling out its advice. This idea, however, is atrocious. And if Mozilla actually did rebrand Firefox, this very site would (rightfully) ridicule them for it.
Paul Kim said:
Totally agree that part of the challenge for Mozilla and Firefox is building awareness among more mainstream Web users. However, we're already doing this -- at over 130 million worldwide users, and in excess of 30% market share in countries like Germany, arguably Firefox has already jumped firmly into the mainstream. We're doing this on the foundation of a great product, that is then willingly recommended by our users to their friends, coworkers and families. Rebranding "Mozilla" as "Netscape" makes no sense to us in this context, as "Firefox" is the only brand for consumers that really matters and it's well on its way. Also note that you suggested Mozilla could issue stock to AOL if a deal were made -- that's not possible. We're 100% owned by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation with no plans to ever go public. Happy to share more background on Mozilla if you're interested Henry, drop me a line.

- Paul Kim, VP Marketing, Mozilla Corporation
BobZmudaGuy said:
Great call. I even give the dullards in charge half a chance of recognizing this is a great idea.

The problem with those dullards is they don't have a clue what is valuable, so they tend to hold onto everything like a fistful of lottery tickets. (e.g. We can't do this, because then Netscape might become the next MySpace)

But I love the idea... then IPO the Netscape Firefox entity!

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