In case you didn't know it (I didn't, until today), Netscape is still alive and kicking -- now as a brand for a suite of services offered by AOL.
After Weblogs Inc. founder Jason Calcanis took over the Netscape helm, the brand underwent a controversial overhaul in June 2006. The most notable addition was that Netscape released its own version of the popular community news aggregator Digg. (Mac Slocum explained Digg in a July 1 Tidbits posting.) On Netscape this service is labeled "Today's Hot Stories Submitted and Voted by You."
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Netscape.com
Netscape's newly "diggified" approach to news. |
In an effort to jump start Netscape's news bookmarking effort, on July 16 Calcanis made a bold offer:
"Before launching the new Netscape I realized that Reddit, NewsVine, Delicious, and DIGG were all driven by a small number of highly-active users. ...I have an offer to the top 50 users on any of the major social news/bookmarking sites: [Netscape] will pay you $1,000 a month for your "social bookmarking" rights. Put in at least 150 stories a month and we'll give you $12,000 a year. (note: most of these folks put in 250-400 stories a month, so that 150 baseline is just that -- a baseline)."
Reading through the comments to that posting, and following the discussion on Technorati, gives a lot of insight into why this offer is so controversial.
But aside from the online cultural struggles this offer illuminates, there's a bigger picture media professionals should watch here: the rise of professional aggregators/bookmarkers.
In short, is it worth it to pay smart, dedicated people to provide a steady stream of entries into a social bookmarking services or similar tool? I think so. In fact, I think as media continues to evolve to become more participatory, collaborative, and conversational, this kind of filtering role will become an essential part of how many organizations -- not just news organizations -- function.
I wrote a lot more about this over at Contentious, and I was interviewed about it today by a major national newspaper. This idea may sound new, but actually there's a rich tradition of similar roles in media and publishing.
What do you think of the idea of paying bookmarkers? Please comment below.
