[...]considering creating a desktop application that lets people access popular Web services such as search, news and maps[...]

``Company officials say that this new technology (the "Web Browser")....''

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Searched the web for "Brand Necrophilia". Results 1 - 7 of about 19.

I don't think it really counts as googlebombing when they all point to your own blog...

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Well you have to start somewhere...

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I'm not in marketing, but I'm sure someone that reads this lj knows something about brands and expiration dates. I'm sure there's some kind of curve that tells you how long a brand can drop out of the public view before you're just better off creating a new brand.

AOL is trying to use 'Netscape' as a brand differentiator for 'power' features since the AOL brand has been tarnished to the point of being laughable. (People could argue that this happened a long time ago, but that's besides the point.)

What I find amusing is how long they waited to do something useful with it and the implied desperation in dragging out the Netscape brand now. Netscape is dead. Dead. Deceased. That dog won't hunt.

I'm just wondering if TW execs got handed branding data from 6 years ago, or if you really _can_ revive brands that have been buried for that long.

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Is this irony? I just want to be sure.

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I can't even tell any more.

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But wasn't Netscape originally acquired, in part, because of it's association as a power user brand? That was what I was remembering.

If they are now using it as a discount brand, that'd be like taking the Nordstrom brand, burying it and shitting on its corpse, then dragging it out later to promote a WalMart style chain of stores.

That's special.

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Actually, I just realized what you said probably doesn't mean what you think it does. The discount service is "missing power features" in the same way Windows 3.1 is missing GUI features.

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This is irony.

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Damn, they even dry-humped the compass. Tsk tsk, AOLTWNS.

-bZj

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*sniff* *sniff* Mmmm, smells like "Portal Lite"... this, coupled with those wacky folk who've invented Yet Another Chording Keyboard and a few other blips on the radar lead me to believe that the heady days of "You've Got Internet? Here, Have Some VC" will soon be upon us once more...

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Keep dreaming, dude.

You don't get VC these days.

You get Homeland Security funding.

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Way back when, around when Netscape 1.0 came out, I wrote a document (in FrameMaker, I think) with "Netscape Navigator" in it. The spellchecker flagged it as a mistake, and suggested, as a replacement, "Endoscope Navigator".

I thought it was funny at the time, but didn't realize just how prophetic it was.

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I hope I stop laughing soon, and regain the ability to breathe.

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All this talk makes me horny.

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This may be a screenshot of the new attrocity:

(From here, among other places.)</a>

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That's out beyond "ugly" and into "makes my insides contract involuntarily" territory.

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What the fuck? That's not a toolbar. It's a toolcircle.

Talk about fucking useless.

DIE DIE DIE!

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They're "thinking outside the box".

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Maybe they could have a boatanchor appear on mouseover.

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nearly a year later, this made me laugh out loud.

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Me, too! Whoa, it's 2008. What am I doing here??

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Hello, 2003! The future is awesome!

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I think I'm going to cry...

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