This article was written on July 22, 2008 by CyberNet.
Back last September, Netscape announced they were calling it quits with their “Digg-Clone” social media site and instead were starting something new called Propeller. Essentially Propeller is the Digg-Clone under a new name. They incorporated the typical Netscape orange and green colors into the new logo and called it a day. Nothing really changed with the service other than the name and the logo, until today.
Today Propeller 2.0 launched with a whole new look – a new logo, new colors, and new features. Take a look at the old versus new logo:
Aside from changes in color and looks, they also changed the rating system. Before they had an up-down system whereas now they have a 0-10.0 system. Readers can decide how well the story rates. The more people that give it a high rating, the better. They’re calling this “Prop It!” meaning users prop stories they find interesting.
We wouldn’t say we’re crazy about the interface simply because you have to scroll to see the bulk of the news items on the page. They took up important space at the top with the logo, menus, and a cartoon animation of their mascot who is “part professor, part citizen journalist,” and tells visitors that “you pick the news.”
Another big change is that they are integrating Propeller further into AOL News and AOL.com (AOL owns Netscape). On those sites, Propeller news items will appear to get more exposure.
Overall we still see Propeller struggling to make a name for themselves in the social media space. They tried doing this under the Netscape brand and it didn’t work, then they tried launching Propeller which helped some, but we don’t think a new logo and colors, and a few changes in how the site operates is really going to help them. Any thoughts?
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
Related Posts:
- Netscape Moves "Digg-Clone" to Propeller.comDigg Prepares To Launch Recommendation EngineUh Oh! GMail Experiences Some Outages And Data LossNewsgator Online Now Recommends StoriesMicrosoft Shows Us Windows Vista
Photobucket is one of the most popular photo and video sharing sites on the web, yet the process of uploading photos has always been pretty tedious because they haven’t offered a bulk uploader. Until today, that is. That’s right, Photobucket finally has a bulk uploader that will allow you to upload up to 100 images at a time. Other sites like Flickr (who 
What started out as a high school project has now turned into 
A service that I came across today called 
Many Google Docs users have been saying for quite a while that it would be so useful to have Docs and Spreadsheets in a mobile version. Google finally took the plunge, and a mobile version is now available at 
I think 
Another nice element is that you can set your Wiki to be public, or private which means you can control who edits the content. You can also select a group of people that are able to edit. The uses for this are endless, but one idea might be for example, if you’re into gaming. You could create a Wiki for you and your friends, and as you think of strategies or come across tips, everyone could add to the page to create one giant guide. After a while, it could really evolve into something useful. Also, your Wiki pages are search engine friendly, which means that your pages will be indexed. 
Yahoo has always been good about integrating their services together, so you’ll notice that Flickr has been integrated into Yahoo Travel, as well as their “Answers” service where people ask questions and other people answer. The questions they show are related to the destination you’re viewing.