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Netscape's nowhere numbers

Update:  Netscape's GM, Jason Calacanis, responds to the report Netscape's traffic has plummeted saying my headline is misleading and that he had anticipated bad raw numbers. "The web traffic after you take that out is actually up, and being up in August is a good thing because this is the slowest month of the year."

The new Netscape is yesterday's news.

In three months, and since the debut of Netscape's venture into presenting news channels influenced by visitors' recommendations, its popularity has plummeted, according to analysis by Alexa.com. 

Three months ago, Netscape,com was the 238th most visited site. This week Alexa calculated it was in 438th place.  It's been downhill for Netscape since late 2004, despite numerous efforts at reformatting and re-launching.

According to Alexa, as many as 15% of visitors may not even be aware of all the changes.  They come to the site to do e-mail; 6% use search, and 4% come because it was the default home page on their Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) computers.  That site, hp.netscape.com, by the way, is an AOL.com page "presented by HP."

As for the 30 new "channels" of news, not much action there, either.  "Tech" is the most popular, drawing visits from 2% of the users, ahead of the 1% that goes to "Celebrities."  None of the other channels registers much more than a blip.

Netscape's (TWX) general manager has heard criticism like this before.  In response, Jason Calacanis has faulted Alexa for its methodology and that its statistics gathering tools are not compatible with all browsers.  So far, though, he's not responded to this latest swipe - which surfaced at Digg.com.  Usually he's quick off the line.

Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner.

Wired's Wiki experiment

Wired News is using a Wiki to produce a story about Wikis.  Wikis are Web sites that allow anyone to add, edit, or change information to a document online.

Written by Ryan Singel, the story has been available for review this week.  Almost 150 changes have been made by people who have registered.  He is responding to suggestions and criticism, and willing to do additional research.

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to do the job of a Wired News editor and whip it into shape,” explained Wired on its site. “Don't change the quotations, but feel free to reorganize it, make cuts, smooth the prose, or add links -- whatever it takes to make it a lively, engaging news piece," Wired instructed. "We'll release the edited story if the whole thing doesn't turn into a disaster ... on Wired News on September 7th."

Wired magazine's editor in chief, Chris Anderson, thinks Wired's online side is onto something.  In an interview, he said Wikis are "super-powerful" because they "tap the collective intelligence," encouraging collaboration and discussion. 

When writing The Long Tail, Anderson posted chapters online as he turned them out, inviting comments and advice.  He got it, and believes he produced a better book, “which I wrote on my laptop at Starbucks as God intended me to."

Anderson hinted there may be more "open source" journalism experiments from Wired. "I'm drawn to the transparency and showing we're not omniscient."

Listen to comments from Chris Anderson.

Pay the podcasters

TalkShoe.com is trying to build its roster of podcast programming by offering money.  Create a show and upload it and get $5.  The offer is good for as many as 10 shows.  You'll also get $1 for every 25 hours people listen to your shows.  Dave Nelson, CEO and founder of TalkShoe, says paying podcasters if part of his effort to "create an entrepreneurial environment where hosts can earn money for their effort."  There’s also a kind of multi-level-marketing angle to this plan; people who refer hosts are paid 25% of the host’s earnings.

The site has been up about three months and lists about 200 shows, several of which are people talking sports, or offering advice about stocks and real estate.  Whether $50 is enough to fatten Talkshoe's programming remains to be seen.  It's classic chicken and egg.  Talkshoe can’t interest advertisers in its shows until it has a roster of programs.  Podcasters have lots of other options for their passionate productions, like Podshow.com or Odeo.com, where they stand a chance of
getting more traffic and listeners.

Podshow and Odeo have the added advantage of being perceived as leaders in the podcast business.  Most folks want to be with the biggest and perceived-best.  The rich get richer, the big get bigger.

YouTube keeps getting bigger, too.  Fewer folks want to put their videos on no-name sites.  It's like the old days, when the Internet's cool dudes didn't want to have AOL.com e-mail addresses because that would mean they were "newbie’s."

So, how does a video sharing site differentiate itself?  Show'em the money.

GUBA.com is offering to pay you 25 cents if you put one of their shared videos on your site, and someone click it, and signs up for a free account to watch it.  Mike Arrington at TechCrunch says, "This is great use of startup money."  But he also concedes this could be a "desperate move to generate publicity in the face of YouTube’s huge mindshare in the market."

I vote for "desperate."