# Did Netscape just change to AOL Netscape?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-netscape-just-change-to-aol-netscape/419803>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 19, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-netscape-just-change-to-aol-netscape/419803 "2007-09-19T23:33:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-netscape-just-change-to-aol-netscape/419803/1 "2007-09-19T23:33:28Z")

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Been using Netscape at home for years. As of yesterday, my homepage was Netscape, which had their version of news and blog links and a list of volunteer content managers (if I understand correctly what I was looking at).

Today it’s AOL.

Looking more closely, I see AOL \* Netscape in the title block, but it seems to be AOL content, look, and feel.

I’m not especially fond of AOL. I’m also mildly disoriented.

I googled “AOL Netscape Merge” and found many sites from 1998 talking about a proposed merger. Perhaps they’ve been merged for a long time, and only AOL-ized their homepage today?

Anyway, I find it curiously Orwellian that there’s no mention of the change on the page. “We have _always_ been AOL.”

Sailboat

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-netscape-just-change-to-aol-netscape/419803/2 "2007-09-19T23:53:33Z")

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AOL did end up buying Netscape in 1998 ([cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape#Acquisition_by_America_Online)). No idea why they just now changed the website.