Techcrunch broke the story that the social news aggregation experiment at Netscape is no more. Well it is going to move *somewhere* (potentially www.wow.com).
The question remains: Why didn't it work? I can think of three potential reasons; (1) Social news aggregation only really works for early adopter crowds, (2) AOL didn't design the product very well or (3) they didn't execute very well.
Reviewing the site and the competition would suggest that (2) and (3) are definitely the case (but there was a lot of improvement) and the jury is still out on (1).
In terms of product, Netscape has quite a nice clean layout however I think they are over-using the white space. Above the fold is only 3.5 stories whereas on Digg I get 6 (on Reddit I get 18 but I think they have gone way too far the other way!). Having the Vote/Sink buttons on the left makes sense (I've always wondered if Digg thought about changing that but didn't want to give Netscape any ammo). However not linking from the title through to the original story is a real usability goof. Plus it feels deliberate to increase page views which is only pisses users off. Also after using Digg a lot, Netscape doesn't feel nearly as slick, like they copied the functionality but not the style.
However, I think execution was an even bigger killer for them. Social news aggregation sites are based on building up a community. That takes time and it takes a brand that people relate to and trust. Netscape from the off struggled with that. First they copied a much loved concept at Digg (in some parts reviled but generally regarded as an innovator) and copied it without adding anything significant or innovative to it. Then they offered to pay top submitters, which struck me as confirmation that they hadn't a clue how to build a community. Even McKinsey (gulp) understands that the vast majority of users that submitt content don't do it for cash (report here).
The jury is still out on whether social news aggregation can go mainstream (or even if Digg can go mainstream). My one to watch is Newsvine although it is still fairly small. There is still a clear demand for news aggregation and commenting. My bet is we will see some interesting innovation in this sector in the next 12 months (and lots more Digg clones!)
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