Netscape recently launched their new beta portal, which will later replace the front page at Netscape.com. And suprise suprise, the new beta is a digg-clone, allowing users to democratically vote for stories, which are placed on the front page after they attain enough votes. The fact that they are placing this right on the front page is a sign that they’re taking the social news space seriously.

The interface is all-too familiar for us digg-ites out there. Users submit stories which are voted upon by other users. The stories then proceed up (or down) the ranks as users vote for them. The question is, will Netscape be able to overcome digg and the other social news sites out there?

Netscape has the advantage of volume–they have many more pageviews than digg, which could potentially bring in more quality stories and votes. However, Netscape is still hesitating about allowing users to control the content in its entirety. The stories on the absolute top of the stack are chosen by editors, instead of placing trust in the voted content. Netscape probably still has qualms about letting the mobs create the content on their most heavily prized web real estate, so I’m sure we won’t see those editorials go away anytime soon.

There are a few differences in the interface, most notable of which are:

• Photos are pulled in for some of the stories.
• Users are able to tag their submissions.
• Visiting an external link brings up a sidebar navigator frame along with the content.

The tagging function is sorely missed at digg, which I hope will make it into the next version when it comes out later this month. The sidebar navigator is simply annoying. I hate external sidebars, which should never used in my opinion. If I want to visit an external site, let me do it without dragging a klunky framed interface with me! (that goes for you too, Google)

But, other than these two elements, Netscape is pretty much identical to digg. I personally like digg’s design better than Netscape’s, which seems to have been crafted more haphazardly. Perhaps we’ll see another iteration on the design when it comes out of beta.

Amusingly enough, it looks like digg users are gaming Netscape’s system. The top story right now is about how Netscape is copying digg (along with a photo of Kevin Rose):

Looks like the Netscape people will have a lot of these kinds of issues on their plate in the next few days.

In the end, I think Netscape has a chance against the other established sites, simply based on their traffic ranking. And who knows, perhaps Netscape will help foster the idea of user generated democractic stories to the average internet joe, since a good chunk of them have Netscape.com as their homepage.