Reports: Netscape to Be Revived as Social-Networking Hub

Several news reports suggest Time Warner (TWX) plans to resurrect its once high-flying Netscape division by turning it into a social networking hub.

Media tracker Paid Content.org says the Netscape name is soon to be attached to a social networking Web site, in which news stories and other items can be freely traded.

In order to do this, over the last few weeks Netscape owner Time Warner has fired some of its Netscape-focused employees and plans to install a new director, Jason Calacanis, according to the ValleyWag Web site. Time Warner owns Weblogs, which Calacanis runs.

Both reports claim the moves are a new effort to resurrect the once-mighty Netscape brand name.

A representative for Time Warner, which owns Weblogs, didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Netscape's merely a blip on the Internet radar nowadays. But in the mid-to-late 1990s, its Web browser and Internet portal ruled the roost.

Netscape's undoing may have well been its infamous, and bruising, battles with Microsoft (MSFT) over Internet browsers.

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