Netscape has announced plans to ditch their Digg style social news site for a more traditional news portal homepage. The move was announced late last week on the Netscape blog.

Netscape says they have no plans to get rid of the social news site, rather just move it to a new location. According to the Netscape blog, the decision to revert back to a more traditional homepage was the result of a user study:

“Many of you may remember that Netscape.com used to be much different than it is today. In fact, it used to contain more mainstream news before we shifted to the social news site you see now.

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.”

The new Netscape homepage is not live yet, but can be viewed at netscape.aol.com

Some bloggers are speculating the change could give Netscape new opportunities in advertising, especially from search, which could not be reached via the social news site. As mentioned earlier, the social news site will still be available, but will be hosted on a new domain to be announced in the near future.

For small business owners, the change means that more than ever, webmasters need to ensure their URLs are included in AOL search results as this search box will now be featured on the Netscape homepage. For expert submission to AOL and 16 other top search engines, try Premium Submit at only $19.95.

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