Netscape, by AOL

Now that I've explained the ridculousness of the AOL customer service policy, I'll throw them a little good good, and then a little bad.

AOL released the the new Netscape.com just one day ago, and it took almost no time for the father of Weblogs, inc. and the hero of AOL 2.0 (or 7.9, or whatever) to come seeking the wisdom of the masses.  Jason Calacanis posted this blog earlier today:

In the spirit of making the product better I'd appreciate it if everyone would tell me what they love and hate about the site in the comments below. I'll respond to all of the issues as quick as I can, and you guys can feel free to post responses to each other.

Kudos to Calacanis (he just has one of those last names that begs you to call him by it) for being so quick to ask for feedback, and respond to it.  By not shying away from critisicm, hopefully he'll gain a little more insight, and give himself a bit of a reprieve for improvements.

Netscape, on the other hand, has a long way to go.  The process of coupling traditional journalism with digg journalism shows an understanding of what being a news aggregator of today is, but the user experience left me a little empty.  It reminds me of MSNBC.com more than anything else.  They could have solved some of the clutter by enabling the user to individualize the content to their own tastes and interests.  In short, the motor's running great, but the body has a few dents.

But, with JC at the helm, I expect Netscape to evolve the experience, and if nothing else, become at least a player in the news portal game.  For now, you can catch me over at digg...