AOL revamps Netscape.com

AOL is revamping its Netscape.com Web portal to give visitors a greater role in determining what news articles get readily shown to others.

Visitors will be able to submit links to neat articles they find elsewhere and vote on the ones they like most. The items receiving the most votes will appear on the home page as well as in separate sections focusing on technology, food and other topics.

The new Netscape portal is scheduled to launch July 1, with a public "beta" test available beginning Thursday.

Because AOL also runs AOL.com, it can experiment with its less-trafficked Netscape.com site.

Netscape.com will still have links to weather, e-mail and other features commonly associated with portals, but they will not be as prominent.

The portal also will have some items hand-picked, vetted and in many cases amplified with original reporting by AOL staff, but they will be drawn from the user-voted pool.