Netcenter gained 850,000 new members in September, an increase of 112 percent since the revamped site went live in late June, according to Netscape. During the same three-month period, daily page views at Netcenter jumped 46 percent. "Our growth rates have established us as the fastest growing portal site on the Internet," claims Mike Homer, executive vice president and general manager of Netscape's Netcenter Division. Homer attributes the traffic increase to Project Turbo, Netscape's aggressive campaign to make Netcenter the dominant Web portal.

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The Netcenter announcement followed last week's release of an International Data Corporation report that found that Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser had for the first time moved ahead of Netscape Navigator -- Netscape's flagship product -- in market share. According to IDC, Netscape's market share slipped to 41.5 percent in June, while the combined market share for Internet Explorer and America Online (whose users get Internet Explorer automatically) rose to 43.8 percent.

Regardless of Netcenter's apparent popularity, Netscape faces an uphill battle in the Web portal wars, too. On Tuesday, Lycos, a portal competitor, announced that it had agreed to acquire Wired Digital. The $83 million stock-swap deal will give Lycos the Wired Web-search engine, HotBot, as well as online editorial content from Wired News and HotWired. Meanwhile, Infoseek, another Web search engine/portal site, is planning the Go Network in a partnership with Walt Disney. The Go Network, to launch later this year, will combine Internet access with a Web portal site offering integrated Disney-owned content, such as ABCNews.com and ESPN.com.

And Netscape's arch nemesis, Microsoft, on October 1 unveiled plans to launch localized versions of its newly redesigned MSN portal site in 24 countries. The expansion, to roll out market by market by the year-end, will provide locally relevant online content in 13 languages for more than 120 million Internet users, according to Microsoft.