According to AOL’s Tom Drapeau, the rebranding strategy failed and users kept associating the Netscape portal with an “editorial controlled” policy. The idea that anyone would be able to submit news and let other users judge their worth was just not what Netscape visitors had in mind:

We received some feedback that people really do associate the Netscape brand with providing mainstream news that is editorially controlled. In fact, we specifically heard that our users do have a desire for a social news experience, but simply didn’t expect to find it on Netscape.com.

The decision to redirect the current Netscape.com site is based on that feedback and our desire to better serve our community.”

There’s a bit good news for those who really enjoyed the Digg-like format launched over a year ago: the project hasn’t been completely axed. AOL intends to keep it alive, but at a different location to be decided sometimes soon. One thing is clear though: the project has lost the spotlight. Don’t be amazed if AOL decided to take off the web completely in a year or so.