Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Ancient Geeks

Author:Doc Searls
Posted:11/6/1999; 1:20:43 PM
Topic:Ancient Geeks
Msg #:12776 (In response to 12775)
Prev/Next:12775 / 12777

Great points. Netscape thought they could make money on the server side, and their own nerd community overtook them. They were done in by Brian Behlendorf as much as by Bill Gates.

Credit where due. I would add that Netscape did a lot to keep directory access open by buying up the U Mich guys -- Tim Howes and the rest -- and standardizing on LDAP when they still had the market clout to do it. This is a story that has hardly ever been told. Craig Burton tells it well, in the interview here.

But Dave is right in the spirit of his Netscape criticisms. One of the most telling interviews I ever saw was the one Mark Stephens (aka Robert X. Cringeley) did in "Triumph of the Nerds" on public TV a few years back. It was with Jim Clarke, who said about Netscape's business plan, "With 70 million users, there had to be money in here somewhere." Or words to that effect.

Netscape was a cool company, one with terrific people and a lot of momentum out of the gate; but not one with a sustaining long-term vision that would have kept them alive -- along with the faith of the millions who wanted to believe in them. Want to look at the soul of a company? Look at their customer service. Truth be told: Netscape's sucked. I bought that effing browser the whole time they sold it, and I never got service that was worth a shit. Never. Nor was my input welcomed or appreciated. Worse, they had a terrific system where bugs could get reported to the engineering team every time a browser failure occurred, but even that turned into an annoyance for the user. I used to write "please have a human being tell me this is worth my while... here's my email address." I never heard shit.

If they kept making moves like that LDAP thing, they'd still be here. But when they got fixated on the semi in the rear view mirror -- Microsoft bearing down on them -- they missed their turn and flew off the cliff. They bragged about how they were going to beat Microsoft and moved into victim mode when Microsoft took them seriously as a competitor. Not smart. It was the same dumb move Apple made when they sued Microsoft for knocking off the UI.

By playing victim, Netscape sucked energy away from the only place it should have gone: to siding with the Web, making good on their position as THE Web leader and out-innovating everybody else.

Again, credit where due: The way John Doerr engineered Netscape's absorbtion by AOL was the smoothest, most brilliant work I have ever seen by a VC. Really amazing. He managed to maximize every party's value while the doomed company -- Netscape -- was transformed into into AOL mitochondria.

And who cares that much about companies anyway? Marc Andreessen will probably do more good at his new company than he was doing at Netscape or AOL. Eric Hahn (who engineered the LDAP move) is doing great work at Red Hat. Barkesdale and Clarke are helping new businesses happen as VCs or the equivalent. Hey: life doesn't just go on; it's better than ever.

As for Judge Jackson's findings, they sadden me. Once again the feds are trying to do the market's work for it, and the unintended consequences will far outweigh the intended ones, which will happen anyway.

Doc

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