Netscape

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Netscape Communications
Type Subsidiary of AOL
Industry Internet, Software, &
Telecommunication
Founded 1994
Headquarters Mountain View, California, United
States (as an independent
company)
Dulles, Virginia, USA
(after becoming a part of AOL)
Key people Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark
(founders); James Barksdale
(CEO)
Products Internet suite
Web browser
Internet service provider
Web portal
Employees 2,500[1]
Parent AOL (since 1998)
Website isp.netscape.com
(http://isp.netscape.com)
Netscape
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Netscape Communications (formerly known as
Netscape Communications Corporation and
commonly known as Netscape) is a U.S. computer
services company, best known for Netscape Navigator,
its web browser. When it was an independent company,
its headquarters was in Mountain View, California.
[2]
Netscape's web browser was once dominant in terms of
usage share, but lost most of that share to Internet
Explorer during the first browser war. The usage share of
Netscape had fallen from over 90 percent in the mid-
1990s to less than one percent by the end of 2006.
Netscape is credited with developing the Secure Sockets
Layer Protocol (SSL) for securing online
communication, which is still widely used,
[3]
as well as
JavaScript, the most widely used language for client-side
scripting of web pages.
Netscape stock traded from 1995 until 1999 when it was
acquired by AOL in a pooling-of-interests transaction
ultimately worth US$10 billion.
[4][5]
Shortly before its
acquisition by AOL, Netscape released the source code
for its browser and created the Mozilla Organization to
coordinate future development of its product.
[6]
The
Mozilla Organization rewrote the entire browser's source
code based on the Gecko rendering engine;
[7]
all future
Netscape releases were based on this rewritten code. The
Gecko engine would later be used to power the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser.
Under AOL, Netscape's browser development continued until December 2007, when Tom Drapeau,
director of AOL's Netscape Brand, announced that the company would stop supporting Netscape software
products as of early 2008.
[8][9]
The Netscape brand is still used, as of 2013, by AOL to market a discount
Internet service provider.
[10]
Contents
1 History
1.1 Early years
1.2 Open sourcing
1.3 Acquisition by America Online
1.4 Disbanding
1.5 Final release of the browser
2 Software
2.1 Classic releases
2.1.1 Netscape Navigator (versions 0.94.08)
2.1.2 Netscape Communicator (versions 4.04.8)
2.2 Mozilla-based releases
2.2.1 Netscape 6 (versions 6.06.2.3)
2.2.2 Netscape 7 (versions 7.07.2)
2.3 Mozilla Firefox-based releases
2.3.1 Netscape Browser (version 8.08.1.3)
2.3.2 Netscape Navigator (version 9.0)
2.4 End of development and support
2.5 Mozilla Thunderbird-based releases
2.5.1 Netscape Messenger 9
3 Product list
3.1 Initial product line
3.2 Later Netscape products
3.3 Propeller
3.4 Netscape Search
3.5 Other sites
3.6 Netscape technologies
4 Current services
4.1 Netscape Internet Service
4.1.1 Web Accelerator
4.2 Netscape.com
4.3 DMOZ
4.4 Netscape Forum Center
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
History
Netscape Communications wants you to forget all the
highway metaphors you've ever heard about the Internet.
Instead, think about an encyclopediaone with unlimited,
graphically rich pages, connections to E-mail and files, and
access to Internet newsgroups and online shopping.
Netscape Navigator, Macworld (May 1995)
[11]
Early years
Netscape was the first company to attempt to
capitalize on the nascent World Wide
Web.
[12][13]
It was originally founded under the
name Mosaic Communications Corporation
on April 4, 1994, the brainchild of Jim Clark
who had recruited Marc Andreessen as co-
founder and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as investors. Clark recruited other early team members from
SGI and NCSA Mosaic. Jim Barksdale came on board as CEO in January 1995.
[13]
Jim Clark and Marc
Andreessen originally created a 20-page concept pitch for an online gaming network to Nintendo for the
Nintendo 64 console, but a deal was never reached. Marc Andreessen explains, "If they had shipped a year
earlier, we probably would have done that instead of Netscape."
[14][15]
The company's first product was the web browser, called Mosaic Netscape 0.9, released on October 13,
1994. This browser was subsequently renamed Netscape Navigator, and the company took the 'Netscape'
name (coined by employee Greg Sands,
[13]
although it was also a trademark of Cisco Systems
[16]
) on
November 14, 1994
[17]
to avoid trademark ownership problems with NCSA, where the initial Netscape
employees had previously created the NCSA Mosaic web browser. The Mosaic Netscape web browser did
not use any NCSA Mosaic code.
[18]
Netscape made a very successful IPO on August 9, 1995. The stock
was set to be offered at $14 per share, but a last-minute decision doubled the initial offering to $28 per
share. The stock's value soared to $75 during the first day of trading, nearly a record for first-day gain. The
stock closed at $58.25, which gave Netscape a market value of $2.9 billion. While it was unusual for a
company to go public prior to becoming profitable, Netscape's revenues had, in fact, doubled every quarter
in 1995.
[19]
The success of this IPO subsequently inspired the use of the term "Netscape moment" to
describe a high-visibility IPO that signals the dawn of a new industry.
[20][21]
During this period, Netscape
also pursued a publicity strategy (crafted by Rosanne Siino, then head of public relations) packaging
Andreessen as the company's "rock star."
[22]
The events of this period ultimately landed Andreessen,
barefoot, on the cover of Time Magazine.
[23]
Netscape advertised that "the web is for everyone" and stated one of its goals was to "level the playing
field" among operating systems by providing a consistent web browsing experience across them. The
Netscape web browser interface was identical on any computer. Netscape later experimented with
prototypes of a web-based system which would enable users to access and edit their files anywhere across a
network, no matter what computer or operating system they happened to be using. This did not escape the
attention of Microsoft, which viewed the commoditization of operating systems as a direct threat to its
bottom line, i.e. a move from Windows to another operating system would yield a similar browsing
experience thus reducing barriers to change. It is alleged that several Microsoft executives visited the
Netscape campus in June 1995 to propose dividing the market (an allegation denied by Microsoft and, if
true, would have breached antitrust laws), which would have allowed Microsoft to produce web browser
software for Windows while leaving all other operating systems to Netscape.
[24]
Netscape refused the
proposition.
Microsoft released version 1.0 of Internet Explorer as a part of the Windows 95 Plus Pack add-on.
According to former Spyglass developer Eric Sink, Internet Explorer was based not on NCSA Mosaic as
commonly believed, but on a version of Mosaic developed at Spyglass
[25]
(which itself was based upon
NCSA Mosaic). Microsoft quickly released several successive versions of Internet Explorer, bundling them
with Windows, never charging for them, financing their development and marketing with revenues from
other areas of the company. This period of time became known as the browser wars, in which Netscape
Communicator and Internet Explorer added many new features and went through many version numbers
(not always in a logical fashion) in attempts to outdo each other. But Internet Explorer had the upper hand,
as the amount of manpower and capital dedicated to it eventually surpassed the resources available in
Netscape's entire business. By version 3.0, IE was roughly a feature-for-feature equivalent of Netscape
Communicator, and by version 4.0, it was generally considered to be more stable on Windows than on the
Macintosh platform. Microsoft also targeted other Netscape products with free workalikes, such as the
Internet Information Server (IIS), a web server which was bundled with Windows NT.
Netscape could not compete with this strategy. In fact, it didn't attempt to. Netscape Navigator was not free
to the general public until January 1998,
[26]
while Internet Explorer and IIS have always been free or came
bundled with an operating system and/or other applications. Meanwhile, Netscape faced increasing
criticism for the bugs in its products; critics claimed that the company suffered from 'featuritis' putting a
higher priority on adding new features than on making them work properly. This was particularly true with
Netscape Navigator 2, which was only on the market for 5 months in early 1996 before being replaced by
Netscape Navigator 3. The tide of public opinion, having once lauded Netscape as the David to Microsoft's
Goliath, steadily turned negative, especially when Netscape experienced its first bad quarter at the end of
1997 and underwent a large round of lay-offs in January 1998. Later, former Netscape executives Mike
Homer and Peter Currie described the period as "hectic and crazy" and that the company was undone by
factors both internal and external.
[27]
Open sourcing
January 1998 was also the month that Netscape started the open source Mozilla project. Netscape publicly
released the source code of Netscape Communicator 4.0 in the hopes that it would become a popular open
source project. It placed this code under the Netscape Public License, which was similar to the GNU
General Public License but allowed Netscape to continue to publish proprietary work containing the
publicly released code. However, after having released the Communicator 4.0 code this way, Netscape
proceeded to work on Communicator 4.5 which was focused on improving email and enterprise
functionality. It eventually became clear that the Communicator 4.0 browser was too difficult to develop,
and open source development was halted on this codebase. Instead, the open source development shifted to
a next generation browser built from scratch. Using the newly built Gecko layout engine, this browser had a
much more modular architecture than Communicator 4.0 and was therefore easier to develop with a large
number of programmers. It also included an XML user interface language named XUL that allowed single
development of a user interface that ran on Windows, Macintosh, and Unix.
The United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust case against Microsoft in May 1998. Netscape
was not a plaintiff in the case, though its executives were subpoenaed and it contributed much material to
the case, including the entire contents of the 'Bad Attitude' internal discussion forum.
[28]
In October 1998,
Netscape acquired web directory site NewHoo for the sum of $1 million, renamed it the Open Directory
Project, and released its database under an open content license.
Acquisition by America Online
America Online (AOL) on November 24, 1998 announced it would acquire Netscape Communications in a
tax-free stock-swap valued at US$4.2 billion at the time of the announcement.
[29]
By the time the deal
closed on March 17, 1999, it was valued at US$10 billion.
[4][5]
This merger was ridiculed by many who
believed that the two corporate cultures could not possibly mesh; one of its most prominent critics was
longtime Netscape developer Jamie Zawinski.
[30]
The acquisition was seen as a way for AOL to gain a
bargaining chip against Microsoft, to let it become less dependent on the Internet Explorer web browser.
Others believed that AOL was interested in Netcenter, or Netscape's web properties, which drew some of
the highest traffic worldwide. Eventually, Netscape's server products and its Professional Services group
became part of iPlanet, a joint marketing and development alliance between AOL and Sun Microsystems.
On November 14, 2000, AOL released Netscape 6, based on the Mozilla 0.6 source code. (Version 5 was
skipped.) Unfortunately, Mozilla 0.6 was far from being stable yet, and so the effect of Netscape 6 was to
further drive people away from the Netscape brand. It was not until August 2001 that Netscape 6.1
appeared, based on Mozilla 0.9.2 which was significantly more robust. A year later came Netscape 7.0,
based on the Mozilla 1.0 core.
Disbanding
During the acquisition of Netscape by AOL, joint development and marketing of Netscape software
products would occur through the Sun-Netscape Alliance. The software in the newly branded iPlanet
included "messaging and calendar, collaboration, web, application, directory, and certificate servers", as
well as "production-ready applications for e-commerce, including commerce exchange, procurement,
selling, and billing."
[31]
In March 2002, when the alliance was ended, "iPlanet became a division of Sun...
Sun retained the intellectual property rights for all products and the engineering"
[32]
On July 15, 2003, Time Warner (formerly AOL Time Warner) disbanded Netscape. Most of the
programmers were laid-off, and the Netscape logo was removed from the building. However, the Netscape
7.2 web browser (developed in-house rather than with Netscape staff, with some work outsourced to Sun's
Beijing development center
[33]
) was released by AOL on August 18, 2004.
[34]
On October 12, 2004, the popular developer website Netscape DevEdge was shut down by AOL. DevEdge
was an important resource for Internet-related technologies, maintaining definitive documentation on the
Netscape browser, documentation on associated technologies like HTML and JavaScript, and popular
articles written by industry and technology leaders such as Danny Goodman. Some content from DevEdge
has been republished at the Mozilla website.
After the Sun acquisition by Oracle in January 2010, Oracle continued to sell iPlanet branded applications,
which originated from Netscape.
[35]
Applications include: Oracle iPlanet Web Server and Oracle iPlanet
Web Proxy Server.
Final release of the browser
The Netscape brand name continued to be used extensively. The company once again had its own
programming staff devoted to the development and support for the series of web browsers.
[36]
Additionally,
Netscape also maintained the Propeller web portal, which was a popular social-news site, similar to Digg,
which was given a new look in June 2006. AOL marketed a discount ISP service under the Netscape brand
name.
Netscape logo 2005
2007, still used in
some portals
A new version of the Netscape browser, Netscape Navigator 9, based on Firefox 2,
was released in October 2007. It featured a green and grey interface. In November
2007, IE had 77.4% of the browser market, Firefox 16.0% and Netscape 0.6%,
according to Net Applications, an Internet metrics firm.
[37]
On December 28,
2007, AOL announced that on February 1, 2008 it would drop support for the
Netscape web browser and would no longer develop new releases.
[8]
The date was
later extended to March 1
[9]
to allow a major security update and to add a tool to
assist users in migrating to other browsers. These additional features were included in the final version of
Netscape Navigator 9 (version 9.0.0.6), released on February 20, 2008.
Software
Classic releases
Netscape Navigator (versions 0.94.08)
Netscape Navigator was Netscape's web browser from versions 1.04.8. The first beta versions were
released in 1994 and were called Mosaic and later Mosaic Netscape. Then, a legal challenge from the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (makers of NCSA Mosaic), which many of Netscape's
founders used to develop, led to the name Netscape Navigator. The company's name also changed from
Mosaic Communications Corporation to Netscape Communications Corporation.
The browser was easily the most advanced available and so was an instant success, becoming market leader
while still in beta. Netscape's feature-count and market share continued to grow rapidly after version 1.0
was released. Version 2.0 added a full email reader called Netscape Mail, thus transforming Netscape from
a single-purpose web browser to an Internet suite. The main distinguishing feature of the email client was
its ability to display HTML email. During this period, the entire suite was called Netscape Navigator.
Version 3.0 of Netscape (the first beta was codenamed "Atlas") was the first to face any serious competition
in the form of Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0. But Netscape easily remained the number one browser for
the time being.
Netscape also released a Gold version of Navigator 3.0 that incorporated WYSIWYG editing with drag and
drop between web editor and email components.
[38]
Netscape Communicator (versions 4.04.8)
Netscape 4 addressed the problem of Netscape Navigator being used as both the name of the suite and the
browser contained within it by renaming the suite to Netscape Communicator. After five preview releases
in 19961997, Netscape released the final version of Netscape Communicator in June 1997. This version,
more or less based on Netscape Navigator 3 Code, updated and added new features. The new suite was
successful, despite increasing competition from Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0 (which had a more advanced
HTML engine) and problems with the outdated browser core. IE was slow and unstable on the Mac
platform until version 4.5. Despite this, Apple entered into an agreement with Microsoft to make IE the
Netscape Communicator 4.61 for
OS/2 Warp
default browser on new Mac OS installations, a further blow to
Netscape's prestige. The Communicator suite was made up of
Netscape Navigator, Netscape Mail & Newsgroups, Netscape
Address Book and Netscape Composer (an HTML editor).
In January 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation announced
that all future versions of its software would be available free of
charge and developed by an open source community, Mozilla.
Netscape Communicator 5.0 was announced (codenamed "Gromit").
However, its release was greatly delayed, and meanwhile there were
newer versions of Internet Explorer, starting with version 4. These
had more features than the old Netscape version, including better
support of HTML 4, CSS, DOM, and ECMAScript. The more
advanced Internet Explorer 5.0 became the market leader.
In October 1998, Netscape Communicator 4.5 was released. It featured various functionality improvements,
especially in the Mail and Newsgroups component, but did not update the browser core, whose
functionality was essentially identical to that of version 4.08. One month later, Netscape Communications
Corporation was bought by AOL. In November, work on Netscape 5.0 was canceled in favor of developing
a completely new program from scratch.
Mozilla-based releases
Netscape 6 (versions 6.06.2.3)
In 1998, an informal group called the Mozilla Organization was formed and largely funded by Netscape
(the vast majority of programmers working on the code were paid by Netscape) to co-ordinate the
development of Netscape 5 (codenamed "Gromit"), which would be based on the Communicator source
code. However, the aging Communicator code proved difficult to work with and the decision was taken to
scrap Netscape 5 and re-write the source code. The re-written source code was in the form of the Mozilla
web browser, which, with a few additions, Netscape 6 was based on.
This decision meant that Netscape's next major version was severely delayed. In the meantime, Netscape
was taken over by AOL who, acting under pressure from the Web Standards Project, forced its new division
to release Netscape 6.0 in 2000. The suite again consisted of Netscape Navigator and the other
Communicator components, with the addition of a built-in AOL Instant Messenger client, Netscape Instant
Messenger. However, it was clear that Netscape 6 was not yet ready for release and it flopped badly. It was
based on Mozilla 0.6, which was not ready to be used by the general public yet due to many serious bugs
that would cause it to crash often or render web pages slowly. Later versions of Netscape 6 were much
improved (especially 6.2.x was regarded as a good release), but the browser still struggled to make an
impact on a disappointed community.
Netscape 7 (versions 7.07.2)
Netscape 7.0 (based on Mozilla 1.0.1) was released in August 2002 was a direct continuation of Netscape 6
with very similar components. It picked up a few users, but was still very much a minority browser. It did,
however, come with the popular Radio@Netscape Internet radio client. AOL had decided to deactivate
Mozilla's popup-blocker functionality in Netscape 7.0, which created an outrage in the community. AOL
Netscape Navigator 9.0
learned the lesson for Netscape 7.01 and allowed Netscape to reinstate the popup-blocker. Netscape also
introduced a new AOL-free-version (without the usual AOL addons) of the browser suite. Netscape 7.1
(codenamed "Buffy" and based on Mozilla 1.4) was released in June 2003.
In 2003, AOL closed down its Netscape division and laid-off or reassigned all of Netscape's employees.
Mozilla.org continued, however, as the independent Mozilla Foundation, taking on many of Netscape's ex-
employees. AOL continued to develop Netscape in-house (with help from Sun's Beijing development
center
[33]
), but, due to there being no staff committed to it, improvements were minimal. One year later, in
August 2004, the last version based on Mozilla was released: Netscape 7.2, based on Mozilla 1.7.2.
After an official poll posted on Netscape's community support board in late 2006, speculation arose of the
Netscape 7 series of suites being fully supported and updated by Netscape's in-house development
team.
[39][40][41]
This was not to be.
Mozilla Firefox-based releases
Netscape Browser (version 8.08.1.3)
Between 2005 and 2007, Netscape's releases became known as Netscape Browser. AOL chose to base
Netscape Browser on the relatively successful Mozilla Firefox, a re-written version of Mozilla produced by
the Mozilla Foundation. This release is not a full Internet suite as before, but is solely a web browser. Other
controversial decisions include the browser's being made only for Microsoft Windows and its featuring both
the Gecko rendering engine of previous releases and the Trident engine used in Internet Explorer. AOL's
acquisition of Netscape Communications in November 1998
[42]
made it less of a surprise when the
company laid off the Netscape team and outsourced development to Mercurial Communications. Netscape
Browser 8.1.3 was released on April 2, 2007, and included general bug fixes identified in versions 8.0
8.1.2
[43][44]
Netscape Navigator (version 9.0)
Netscape Navigator 9's features were said to include newsfeed
support and become more integrated with the Propeller Internet
portal,
[45]
alongside more enhanced methods of discussion,
submission and voting on web pages.
[46]
It also sees the browser
return to multi-platform support across Windows, Linux and Mac
OS X.
[47]
Like Netscape version 8.x, the new release was based
upon the popular Mozilla Firefox (version 2.0), and supposedly had
full support of all Firefox add-ons and plugins, some of which
Netscape was already providing.
[48]
Also for the first time since
2004, the browser was produced in-house with its own
programming staff.
[49]
A beta of the program was first released on
June 5, 2007.
[50]
The final version was released on October 15, 2007.
End of development and support
AOL officially announced
[8][9]
that support for Netscape Navigator would end on March 1, 2008, and
recommended that its users download either the Flock or Firefox browsers, both of which were based on the
same technology.
The decision met mixed reactions from communities, with many arguing that the termination of product
support is significantly belated. Internet security site Security Watch stated that a trend of infrequent
security updates for AOL's Netscape caused the browser to become a "security liability", specifically the
20052007 versions, Netscape Browser 8.
[51]
Asa Dotzler, one of Firefox's original bug testers, greeted the
news with "good riddance" in his blog post, but praised the various members of the Netscape team over the
years for enabling the creation of Mozilla in 1998.
[52]
Others protested and petitioned AOL to continue
providing vital security fixes to unknowing or loyal users of its software, as well as protection of a well-
known brand.
[53][54][55]
Mozilla Thunderbird-based releases
Netscape Messenger 9
On June 11, 2007, Netscape announced Netscape Mercury, a stand-alone Email / News Client that was to
accompany Navigator 9. Mercury was based on Mozilla Thunderbird.
[56]
The product was later renamed
Netscape Messenger 9, and an alpha version was released. In December 2007, AOL announced it was
canceling Netscape's development of Messenger 9 as well as Navigator 9.
Product list
Initial product line
Netscape's initial product line consisted of:
Netscape Navigator web browser for Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, Unix, and Linux
Netsite Communications web server, with a web-based configuration interface
[57]
Netsite Commerce web server, simply the Communications server with SSL (https) added
Netscape Proxy Server
Later Netscape products
Netscape's later products included:
Netscape Personal Edition (the browser along with PPP software and an account creation wizard to
sign up with an ISP)
Netscape Communicator (a suite which included Navigator along with tools for mail, news, calendar,
VoIP, and composing web pages, and was bundled with AOL Instant Messenger and RealAudio)
Netscape FastTrack and Enterprise web servers
Netscape Collabra Server, a NNTP news server acquired in a purchase of Collabra Software, Inc.
Netscape Directory Server, an LDAP server
Netscape Messaging Server, an IMAP and POP mail server
Netscape Certificate Server, for issuing SSL certificates
Netscape Calendar Server, for group scheduling
Netscape Compass Server, a search engine and spider
Netscape Application Server, for designing web applications
Netscape Publishing System, for running a commercial site with news articles and charging users per
access
Netscape Xpert Servers
ECxpert a server for EDI message exchange
SellerXpert B to B Commerce Engine
BuyerXpert eProcurement Engine
BillerXpert Online Bill Paying Engine
TradingXpert HTML EDI transaction frontend
CommerceXpert Online Retail Store engine
Radio@Netscape and Radio@Netscape Plus
Propeller
Between June 2006 and September 2007, AOL operated Netscape's website as social news website similar
to Digg. The format did not do well; traffic dropped 55.1 percent between November 2006 and August
2007.
[58]
In September 2007, AOL reverted Netscape's website to a traditional news portal, and rebranded
the social news portal as "Propeller," moving the site to the domain "propeller.com." AOL shut down the
Propeller website on October 1, 2010.
[58]
Netscape Search
Netscape operated a search engine, Netscape Search (http://search.netscape.com), which now redirects to
AOL Search (which itself now merely serves Google search results). Another version of Netscape Search
formerly found at netscape.com/search (http://www.netscape.com/search), was incorporated into Propeller,
which has since closed.
Other sites
Netscape also operates a number of country-specific Netscape portals, including Netscape Canada
(http://www.netscape.ca) among others. The portal of Netscape Germany (http://www.netscape.de) was
shut down in June 2008.
The Netscape Blog (http://blog.netscape.com) was written by Netscape employees discussing the latest on
Netscape products and services. Netscape NewsQuake (http://newsquake.netscape.com) (formally Netscape
Reports) is Netscape's news and opinion blog, including video clips and discussions. As of January 2012,
no new posts have been made on either of these blogs since August 2008.
Netscape technologies
Netscape created the JavaScript web page scripting language. It also pioneered the development of push
technology, which effectively allowed web sites to send regular updates of information (weather, stock
updates, package tracking, etc.) directly to a user's desktop (aka "webtop"); Netscape's implementation of
this was named Netcaster.
[59]
Unfortunately, businesses quickly recognized the use of push technology to
deliver ads to users, and annoyed users turned off the feature, so Netcaster was short-lived.
Netscape was notable for its cross-platform efforts. Its client software continued to be made available for
Windows (3.1, 95, 98, NT), Macintosh, Linux, OS/2, BeOS, and many versions of Unix including DEC,
Sun Solaris, BSDI, IRIX, IBM AIX, and HP-UX. Its server software generally was only available for Unix
and Windows NT, though some of its servers were made available on Linux, and a version of Netscape
FastTrack Server was made available for Windows 95/98. Today, most of Netscape's server offerings live
on as the Sun Java System, formerly under the Sun ONE branding. Although Netscape Browser 8 was
Windows only, multi-platform support exists in the Netscape Navigator 9 series of browsers.
[28]
Current services
Netscape Internet Service
Netscape ISP is a 56 kbit/s dial-up service offered at $9.95 per month
[60]
($6.95 with 12-month
commitment). The company serves webpages in a compressed format to increase effective speeds up to
1300 kbit/s (average 500 kbit/s). The Internet service provider is run by AOL under the Netscape brand.
The low-cost ISP was officially launched on January 8, 2004.
[61]
Its main competitor is NetZero. Netscape
ISP's advertising is generally aimed at a younger demographic, e.g., college students, and people just out of
school, as an affordable way to gain access to the Internet.
Web Accelerator
The Web Accelerator precompresses text at the Server side to approximately 4% its original size, increasing
effective throughput to 1300 kbit/s. The accelerator also precompresses Flash executables and images to
approximately 30% and 10%, respectively. Netscape advertises this as "DSL speeds over regular phone
lines", although such speeds are limited to only web browsing, not downloads of files.
Another drawback of this approach is a loss in quality, where the graphics become heavily compacted and
smeared, but the speed is dramatically improved such that web pages load in less than 5 seconds.
Netscape.com
Netscape always drove lots of traffic from various links included in the browser menus to its web
properties. Some say it was very late to leverage this traffic
[62]
for what would become the start of the
major online portal wars.
[63]
When it did, Netcenter, the new name for its site entered the race with Yahoo!,
Infoseek, and MSN, which Google would only join years later.
The original Netscape.com was discontinued in June 2006, replaced by the site that would eventually
become Propeller.com. Two continuations of the original Netscape.com portal are available;
Compuserve.com, the Web site of Compuserve, and ISP.Netscape.com, the web site for Netscape's dial-up
discount ISP service, continue to use the Netscape.com layout as it was before June 2006. Of the two, only
the latter explicitly uses the Netscape branding.
Netscape.com is currently an AOL Netscape-branded mirror duplicate of the AOL.com portal with the
URL, replacing the former social news website in September 2007. The social news site moved to the
Propeller.com domain, where it stayed until ending operations in October 2010. It features facilities such as
news, sports, horoscopes, dating, movies, music and more. The change has come to much criticism amongst
many site users, because the site has effectively become an AOL clone, and simply re-directs to regional
AOL portals in some areas across the globe. Netscape's exclusive features, such as the Netscape Blog,
Netscape NewsQuake, Netscape Navigator, My Netscape and Netscape Community pages, are less
accessible from the AOL Netscape designed portal and in some countries not accessible at all without
providing a full URL or completing an Internet search.
[64]
The new AOL Netscape site was originally
previewed in August 2007 before moving the existing site in September 2007.
[65]
Netscape.co.uk now redirects to AOL Search, with no Netscape branding at all.
[66]
DMOZ
DMOZ (from directory.mozilla.org, its original domain name, also known as the Open Directory Project
or ODP), is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links owned by Netscape that is
constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.
Netscape Forum Center
Netscape also has a wide variety of community-based forums within Netscape Forum Center, including its
browser's community support board. To post on the forums, users must possess an AOL Screenname
account in which to sign in, referred to within the site as the Netscape Network. The same service is also
available through Compuserve Forum Center.
See also
Code Rush, a 1998 documentary about Netscape engineers
SeaMonkey
The Book of Mozilla
References
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98/news/news14.html). Archived from the original (http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/oct/10-20-
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25. ^ "Memoirs from the Browser Wars" (http://biztech.ericsink.com/Browser_Wars.html). Retrieved July 14, 2006.
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(http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sun-netscape-alliance-announces-new-iplanettm-brand-and-
marketing-campaign-73653107.html). Retrieved July 7, 2012.
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name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=23612#23612) Retrieved on February 5, 2007
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Media LLC. Retrieved December 29, 2007.
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(http://www.intercom.co.cr/www/research/1996/0910.htm).
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tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=6590) Retrieved on February 8, 2007
40. ^ Netscape Community poll Should Netscape continue to update 7.2?
(http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=6303)
Retrieved on February 8, 2007
41. ^ Mozillazine Netscape 9 announced (http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=20397) Retrieved on
February 8, 2007
42. ^ PC World Article Nov 24, 1998 12am
(http://www.pcworld.com/article/8869/deal_is_done_aol_buys_netscape.html)
43. ^ Netscape Community Netscape 8.1.3 (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?
44. ^ Netscape Community Netscape 8.1.3 released (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?
tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=7647&redirCnt=1) Retrieved on April 2, 2007
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(http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=6418)
Retrieved on January 24, 2007
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47. ^ Netscape 9.0 30- January 7 announcement (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?
tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=6459) Retrieved on January 30, 2007
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49. ^ Netscape announces cross-platform Netscape 9 to be developed in-house Mozillazine
(http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=20397) Retrieved on February 5, 2007
50. ^ Netscape 9.0b1 released (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?
tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=8525) Retrieved on June 5, 2007
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nscpbrowser&tid=10422). Retrieved January 2, 2008.
Further reading
Jim Clark, Netscape Time: The Making of the Billion-Dollar Start-Up That Took On Microsoft, St.
Martin's Press, 1999.
Michael E. Cusumano and David B. Yoffie, Competing On Internet Time: Lessons From Netscape
And Its Battle With Microsoft, The Free Press, 1998, 2000.
Fortune Magazine, "Remembering Netscape: The Birth Of The Web"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20060427112146/http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archi
ve/2005/07/25/8266639/index.htm), July 25, 2005.
Not Enough Shaders - Why Netscape Almost Never Happened
(http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/07/13/why-netscape-almost-didnt-exist/) - Online gaming
history between Nintendo and Netscape, July 2012
External links
AOL.com Netscape (http://netscape.aol.com/)
nscpbrowser&tid=10422). Retrieved January 2, 2008.
55. ^ "Save Netscape!" (http://www.savenetscape.tk). Retrieved January 2, 2008.
56. ^ Netscape Mercury in progress (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?
tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=8688) Retrieved on June 11, 2007
57. ^ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine"
(https://web.archive.org/web/20080406122059/http://www.mcom.com/MCOM/products_docs/server.html).
Web.archive.org. 2008-04-06. Archived from the original
(http://www.mcom.com/MCOM/products_docs/server.html) on 2008-04-06. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
58. ^
a

b
"Propeller.com Spinning to a Stop - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)"
(http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2050575/Propeller.com-Spinning-to-a-Stop). Search Engine Watch.
Retrieved 2012-10-29.
59. ^ [1] (http://www.catdancers.com/webmags/webrevu/1997/04_18/developers/04_18_97_2.html)
60. ^ "GetNetscape Home Page" (http://www.getnetscape.com/index.adp). Retrieved March 20, 2008.
61. ^ "Netscape Launches Low-Cost Internet Access Service"
(http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,670188,00.html).
62. ^ Netscape late to leverage traffic - CNET News (http://news.cnet.com/Netscape-late-to-leverage-traffic/2100-
1023_3-206685.html). News.cnet.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-08.
63. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/1998/12/17/netscape_unveils_30m_netcenter_ad
64. ^ Netscape Community responses (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-
nscpbrowser&nav=messages&tid=9781&tsn=). Retrieved on September 20, 2007
65. ^ New Netscape Portal Netscape Community (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?
tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=9382) Retrieved on August 14, 2007
66. ^ "Netscape.co.uk" (http://www.netscape.co.uk).
AOL LLC (http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Companies/AOL_LLC/) at DMOZ
The Netscape Archive (http://archive.netscape.com/releases)
The Netscape Blog (http://blog.netscape.com/)
The Netscape Unofficial FAQ (http://www.ufaq.org/)
Netscape Browser Archive (http://sillydog.org/narchive/), SillyDog701
A Netscape Timeline (http://www.holgermetzger.de/Netscape_History.html), Holger Metzger
Mosaic Communications Corporation (http://home.mcom.com/)
Mosaic Communications, early job ads (http://groups.google.com/groups/search?
q=andreessen+wanted+mosaic+silicon+valley+insane+hours+pizza)
Netscape 1.0 emulator (http://www.dejavu.org/1995win.htm)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Netscape&oldid=625355229"
Categories: Netscape AOL Companies based in Mountain View, California
Companies established in 1994 Companies formerly listed on NASDAQ
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Companies initially financed with venture capital
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