November 3rd 2006

The Netscape Homepage Experience

Posted by C.K. Sample, III

› tags: balance, channels, homepage, netscape, rankings, social news

Since we re-launched Netscape, one of our constant struggles has been to make the homepage one of the best experiences it can be for a social news website. Initially, the homepage was dominated by stories from the Technology and Gadget channels, as early adopters of the site were either technophiles and/or people who were used to Digg and who came over to either kick the tires or try to in some way sabotage or break what they (incorrectly, I think) saw as a site trying to become another Digg. We began trying to grow other channels like News and Politics, and we succeeded in getting members involved in those Channels, but, as a result, the site has become overly focused on Politics and partisan disagreements propel most hot point political stories to the top of the pile and crowd out a lot of other interesting stories from other topic areas.

Our goal has always been to provide a new experience. To build a social news site on top of a portal experience with an editorial layer providing original content and follow up metajournalism in the form of Anchor Commentary. We want Netscape to become the best marriage between what new media, citizens media, traditional journalism, television news, and blogging has to offer. We want it to be an evolution of news and an evolution of the portal. Evolution takes time.

With that in mind, we've come up with a few alternate views of the Netscape Homepage that we'd like you to consider:

http://www.netscape.com/hometest/ This first variant of the homepage checks to see what are the top 10 Channels at any given time, and then it pulls the top 3 stories from each of the top 5 channels and the top 2 stories from each of the next 5 channels and ranks these stories on the Homepage. As a result, no single channel will ever have more than 3 stories on the homepage, but only the top 10 channels will ever appear in the rankings.
http://www.netscape.com/hometest1/ This second variant of the homepage checks to see what are the top 25 Channels at any given time, and then it displays the top story from each of those channels and ranks them.

We think both these variant homepages give more balance to the site as a whole, provide a wider variety of information, help people who have less interest in Politics a chance to have their stories rise to the top, and encourage everyone to check out the individual channels, rather than always living on the homepage. What do you think? Would you prefer one of these views over the current homepage? Do you have an idea for another way we could display the homepage?

We'll take whatever you say into consideration and if we change to one of these views, we'll announce it beforehand and keep the previous view around as an alternate.

related links ›

Comments

(Page 1)

9:30AMKatie Miller

Either way sounds fine. It's getting to the point where I'm just about ready to close my Netscape acct. altogether if the same stories appear to continue. Not that they don't have their place, but you must stick with "real" news stories for your home page, and not peoples comments, they are cursing and getting aggrevated, and does not make for a pleasant experience when dealing with your site.

9:52AMsuzanne

I hate the new Netscape! If it wasn't tied to my email account, I would never use it. I go to CNN.com if I want to see the latest news. I don't like seeing news as it is posted and reviewed by people that I neither know, care to know, and who don't appear to have any relevant knowledge or experience in editing news beyond the ability to click a mouse. I don't want people's comments...if I do, I go to a blog regarding a specific subject. Please come up with a serious alternative!

10:33AMChris

I actually liked the old netscape set up better. It was easier to navigate around. Like the other comments previous, I really don't care about the other peoples comments, I would rather judge the story on my own and not have to go through the biased and occasionally thoughtless comments others are posting. Also, the constantly repeated same newstory does little for me.

11:56AMWalt

The new Netscape is a big disappointment. Other than using it for my email, the issues and inane comments from people with personal agendas are a waste of my time.

12:03PMArt

I, too, am waiting for the "old" Netscapte to resurface - but not for much longer. I use Netscape now for my email, never bothering to even look at the "news" items that are either biased, or just a bunch of blogs posted by people venting. Let them write their representatives in government if they're unhappy about something.

12:24PMDiane

I don't lilke the "new" Netscape and hope the old one comes back. I have always preferred Netscape to Explorer because I hated all the junk Explorer. Now there is little difference

12:40PMThe18Delta

It would be much more interesting if the pinned stories in one topic were diversified. Example: The Kerry fiasco was a huge news item that dominated all major networks and other news media, yet the anchors failed to pin even one of the many variants submitted. There needs to be a balance in the Anchor locker room, not just Democrat / Liberal leaning pins. When George W, Or Dick Cheney makes an error in the news cycle, they are immediately pinned. Disappointing in the false efforts the Lead anchor makes to be unbiased. And if you wait a few minutes, this comment will be deleted. Just watch

12:43PMBlargg

Either of these options is preferable to the way it is now. I personally like option 2, hometest1, better.

12:47PMsaranga

you should feature 1) less of politics and channels which work exclusively for any political party 2) less of religious viewsof any religion or sect 3) less of technology and gadgets 4)more of international news and on global issues of environment 5)more of health related development.
like homepage1 you can slect top news from europe ,asia,africa, australia and of south america.
if you really want to be no.1 over internet explorer then be global and promote you site and internet search facilty. for nearly two years i have stopped accessing internet explorer .
am i demanding too much?

1:01PMGregg

I too think the "new" Netscape blows... I think the only reason many of us still come here is our email which has been conviently farmed off to AOL :( FTW \m/ \m/

1:02PMGregg

I too think the new Netscape blows... I think the ONLY reason many of us still come here is our email which has been convienantly farmed off to AOL:( F.T.W. \m/ \m/

1:07PMfrankramos

The way it is now is fine with me. If u have to change it , i vote for #2.
Netscape is one step of all the rest of the sites that are trying to integrate user participation and current events. The community is about 75,000 people of every ilk. News is found somewhere on the web that is interesting and posted to Netscape. Others can read it or not, vote or not, comment or not, find other similar stories on the web and keep the interest alive as long as it lasts. This is a place where one encounters no commercial interference. I love it, thnx for your site!

1:50PMken

What ever you do,Please dunp the stupid side bar

1:52PMdave

I, too, strongly dislike the "new" netscape portal. I hate the comment crap. Just give me the news, and let me decide. "News", and "comments" have no correlation - unless you're doing an "editorial". Go back to a news portal, and I'll start reading it again. Otherwise, I'll just continue going elsewhere, and you'll lose any advertising dollar chances from me to some other site.

2:01PMken

Sorry, I forgot to add, You can also lose the stupid flashing adds

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