While Google and Microsoft prepare quotes to purchase Digg (finally), AOL squandered their social news site Netscape .. er .. Propeller.  Yet, while AOL shows us that they have such fine acumen for anything but running an internet business, Yahoo! would rather have AOL kill them off than Microsoft absorb them.  I am no Microsoft fan, though recent internet offerings and courting of more open projects have taken the edge off, but courting a company that so lacks the ability to compete online seems just crazy.  I guess I need to get an MBA so stupid decisions will suddenly make perfect business sense to me.  Who knows, it might help me understand GM’s rebuilding strategy of producing fewer cars that no one wants to buy?

Sure, they wont see it that way. The Netscape brand name has been twisted and turned no many times no one knows what it stands for anymore. Just as Netscape was finally making an identity for itself, great social news site, fantastic modern social browser, and from all outward appearance was doing well (at least up to the point that Jason Calacanis left); AOL, in an obvious move to do something with its tarnished brand and lack luster portal, is trying to suck the traffic off of its highly neglected, ill thought out purchase nearly a decade ago.

But we all really saw this coming when AOL swapped out a new media forward thinker with an old media thinker. The same mentality that is killing the music industry is now killing Netscape.

Netscape claims in their blog that the current incarnation of Netscape the social site will live on under a new name somewhere, but they failed to mention where, further inviting speculation that it’s over. The current Netscape site will be redirected soon down the AOL black hole of old tired media portal’s.

You may notice that I am not linking to Netscape or AOL in any of this and for good reason. I just don’t believe I should send traffic to a company so undeserving of people’s loyalty.

Note to Jason Calacanis:

Just before you left I was interviewing for a developer job with Tom Drapeau. Netscape was my dream job. Highly talented group, pushing the new media envelope creating wonderfully sophisticated software in a dispersed office environment. I pulled myself out of the interview process because everyone seemed distracted. Shortly after that the AOL CEO was replaced, you (Jason) left followed shortly by C.K. Sample. In hindsight I am glad I stopped pursuing the job despite it being a dream job.

I remember your blog post “I wish I was still running Netscape.” Well Netscape is now dead so Netscape will never be available for purchase. But there is a void in the social news space for something more refined and better engineered than Digg now and I know a group of developers that have great experience. Maybe it’s time for the human-powered news to marry up with the human-powered search engine (Mahalo) with a social browser kicked in for good measure. I suspect they will all need work shortly.