Yahoo, Netscape web portal redesign

[davidh]

In case you haven't noticed:

1. www.netscape.com totally redesigned
vote for the news you like, etc.
Community totally absent (i.e. no Compuserve forums)
apparently no Netscape software download links

2. isp.netscape.com apparently functions now as did the old www.netscape.com
(Compuserve) forums linked under "Community"

3. my.netscape.com (personally customizable start page, need AOL/AIM screen name)
has (Compuserve) forums linked as "Message Boards"
RSS feeds apparently not supported

4. www.yahoo.com
"Directory" (which used to be the main and once the only feature of Yahoo) is now reduced to a single word tab on the search box

DH

[ndebord]

In case you haven't noticed:

1. www.netscape.com totally redesigned
vote for the news you like, etc.
Community totally absent (i.e. no Compuserve forums)
apparently no Netscape software download links

2. isp.netscape.com apparently functions now as did the old www.netscape.com
(Compuserve) forums linked under "Community"

3. my.netscape.com (personally customizable start page, need AOL/AIM screen name)
has (Compuserve) forums linked as "Message Boards"
RSS feeds apparently not supported

4. www.yahoo.com
"Directory" (which used to be the main and once the only feature of Yahoo) is now reduced to a single word tab on the search box

DH

David,

FWIW, this is what SillyDog says about part of the redesign:

http://moz.sillydog.org/

<<The Netscape web portal is gone. The new Netscape.com is a Digg.com-like news-discussion blogging styled site. >>

[Judy G. Russell]

Netscape is now just a big news blog, if you consider what they choose as news... Why bother? I can read all the newspapers I want.

[ndebord]

Netscape is now just a big news blog, if you consider what they choose as news... Why bother? I can read all the newspapers I want.

Judy,

Nobody said AOL was particularly bright.

[Judy G. Russell]

Nobody said AOL was particularly bright.An understatement and a half!

[ndebord]

An understatement and a half!

Judy,

I'm trying to figure out with these redesigns what they're up to. Just throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks? OR? I would not like to see Wugnet go bye bye, although I wouldn't mind seeing Prospero given the heave-ho.

[Dan in Saint Louis]

I'm trying to figure out with these redesigns what they're up to.
The current craze is social networking: MySpace, blogs, etc. In other words, a lot of talkers but few listeners.

[Judy G. Russell]

I'm trying to figure out with these redesigns what they're up to. Just throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks? They're all moving away from any kind of reasoned moderated discourse to people shouting at each other via blogs...

[davidh]

Judy,

I'm trying to figure out with these redesigns what they're up to. Just throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks? OR? I would not like to see Wugnet go bye bye, although I wouldn't mind seeing Prospero given the heave-ho.

I figure that the http://isp.netscape.com ISP might have enough dial-up customers *now*, that AOL figures that it might make sense to have the home page http://isp.netscape.com take over the home page functions that http://www.netscape.com or http://home.netscape.com once had. The old isp.netscape.com site had very little content, relatively speaking, in the past. Even though the Netscape ISP started out in 2003. So it's about time that they made it to be more of a "real" ISP home page. As I mentioned, the Prospero (formerly Compuserve) forums are now conveniently accessible thru http://isp.netscape.com.

I'm not so sure that dumping the Prospero system for the forums would make a lot of sense at this point in time. Because the forums are pretty easy to monitor by RSS (XML). Furthermore the RSS feeds of the forums might be more convient to follow by RSS, at least for some users, by having a list of the latest forum posts presented in a list in an RSS feed reader, as opposed to receiving notices by email when there are new posts to the threads. That is, the lists probably just "scroll off", avoding having to keep deleting notices from one's email inbox or whatever email folder one is having one's email program filter them into.

Having dumped AOL (a few years ago), I haven't follow the proprietary content of AOL bulletin boards (or whatever they're called) to see whether they ALSO have RSS feeds. If they don't, then the Netscape/Compuserve forums would still seem to me to have more in the way of alternative ways to follow them than AOL boards. Furthermore, the actual "original" http://www.delphiforums.com forums (free ones anyway) might yet still not have RSS feed reading capability. If that's the case, then the Compusure Prospero forums might still be ahead of the curve (at least with respect to AOL and Delphiforums) in that respect.

Beggars can't be choosers ;)

In view of the fact that AOL may soon make almost all or at least most of their proprietary content free (to go the advertising business model, to increaes AOL's advertising revenue), it might even be worthwhile to subscribe to AOL at a minimal level ($4.95/mo.) to be able to get that content? (and possibly other AOL subscriber benefits (after the change over happens). And then drop the subscription to AOL after the change over.

Not sure if this link will work:

http://ct.eletters.whatsnewnow.com/rd/cts?d=181-689-1-371-1104768-37351-0-0-0-1

I don't go to the library much anymore. But I used to prefer browsing the stacks by catalog number instead of or in addition to searching the card catalog, to see what titles were in the same category (either Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal System), since it is sometimes hard to guess a good word or phrase to search for in the card catalog (esp. the old hard copy card kind, but even also the computerized card catalogs). The fact that Yahoo has "minimized" the Yahoo directory "interface" in the new Yahoo start page, would seem to indicate to me that a lot of people are not used to or not comfortable with searching by top down directory/category and therefore Yahoo maybe figures it's not worth taking up "real estate" on the Yahoo start page with the directory anymore. Instead they probably get more ad money from the ads and links to popular stories linked into the Yahoo start page.

Perhaps maintaining a top down directory is also more labor intensive, and therefore not worth keeping up-to-date compared to just having users search by the search engine?

Well that's my amateur take on the situation.

DH

BTW, some of the bulletin board server softwares such as the one for this forum have freeware add-on scripts or whatever they are that allow reading forums / bulletin boards such as TAPCIS by RSS.

[davidh]

I don't know how well http://www.dmoz.org is kept up-to-date in comparison to the Yahoo (top down) directory. Perhaps somebody could suggest a better alternative to http://www.dmoz.org ? wiki's such as wikipedia.org might sometimes be better places for browsing by category than the Yahoo directory, because of the fact that the articles are somewhat moderated.

DH

[davidh]

Sometimes old free books might be better quality than some of the latest titles on Amazon or in Borders or Barnes and Noble. Because there was maybe less promotional hoopla when they were first published than it typically the case these days. Sometimes a books that has no or fewer recommendations from "experts" on the back cover, might be more worthwhile reading than those with blurbs from "big names". I think a lot of the "big names" are in cahoots with each other. (Hey, bud, you recommend my books and I'll recommend yours.)

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/subjects.html

[davidh]

RSS and Atom feeds As Attack Delivery Systems

http://www.cgisecurity.com/2006/07/03

[Judy G. Russell]

BTW, some of the bulletin board server softwares such as the one for this forum have freeware add-on scripts or whatever they are that allow reading forums / bulletin boards such as TAPCIS by RSS.And someday we may even have time to figure them out...