Will AOL ever use Netscape?

[Jedigirl]

Ive heard talk about this before, and it seems that aol
is slowly dragging its heels concerning this, i wonder whats taking it so long?

[tedster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Jedigirl.

It's hard to know what the internal workings of AOL are. You know they like to do all sorts of customized things for/to their users, so my guess is that they haven't got all that sorted out - but that's just a guess.

When they started using Netscape/Gecko in their Compuserve division quite a while back, I was also surprised that the AOL 8 general release was based on IE.

[rainborick]

I suspect that the primary issue with incorporating Netscape/Gecko into the AOL software is the negotiations with Microsoft over keeping the AOL icon on the Windows desktop and probably other issues regarding MSN as well. AOL is losing leverage with Microsoft because of its weakening subscriber base, but its still a formidable force out there that I'm sure Microsoft would rather keep in the fold. If broadband access price drops accelerate a bit and AOL can finally establish a position in that market, AOL could be back in the catbird's seat with their library of exclusive content and ease of use.