[thelist] Netscape 6 loads page twice

Aylard JA (James) jaylard at equilon.com
Thu Dec 7 10:58:55 CST 2000


Jeff, Jake, et al,

> :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> : As someone once said here: AOL owns Netscape
> : now.  What would happen to your site if the internal
> : AOL browser used Netscape instead of IE?
> :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> what does aol honestly have to gain by bundling their software with
netscape
> as the browser?  if they skip on their licensing agreement with microsoft
> then they lose the portion of that agreement that places their icon on the
> desktop of all new pc's.

	I was one who raised the specter of AOL switching from IE to
Netscape. Since I raised that possibility, though, I have read that the
inclusion of the AOL icon in Windows is tied to AOL's use of IE, as you
cite, Jeff. That realization changed my assumptions, and makes it seem
almost impossible that AOL will ever switch. Consider: how many customers
can AOL draw from having its icon on every new Windows desktop, vs. how many
customers can it draw through branding on the Netscape browser? It's
business, folks. Unless the AOL/Microsoft cross-branding deal ends, I can't
see AOL ever sacrificing this expressway to new customers in order to
support a minority-share browser with a questionable future.

James Aylard




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