Netscape may be known now for losing the so-called browser war to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. But Netscape.com, the default home page for users of the fading browser, continues to have its following — so much so that when its owner, AOL, tried to update it last month, it received some surprisingly angry feedback.

AOL, part of Time Warner, formally introduced a redesigned version of Netscape.com on June 29, after offering a preview version for two weeks. The new site, modeled after Digg.com, was a news site where users essentially help editors create the home page by submitting and voting on the articles and other links posted there.

The new format seemed aimed at attracting and engaging visitors in the increasingly interactive style of “social news,” or blog aggregator Web sites.

But instead of embracing the new format, some of the site’s longtime fans used those interactive features to vehemently protest the change. One dismayed user posted an item titled “Netscape’s blunder!!!” on Netscape.com a few hours after the redesigned site was online. It elicited more than 300 comments, including pleas to “please bring the old Netscape.com back.”