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It’s the end of an era for a Web pioneer, as AOL announced this week that it will end support for the once-dominant Netscape Navigator Web browser, the AP reported.
Beginning Feb. 1, AOL cease technical support on the browser, as well as any further software development. Netscape will continue to exist as a subsidiary of AOL, owned by Time Warner, except it will remain only an advertising business.
According to a blog entry on AOL’s “Netscape blog” by developer Tom Drapeau, “While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.”
Arriving in the early 1990s, Netscape’s Navigator was the first Web browser to catch on in a big way with the general public. But after an unsuccessful war with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, one which led to years of federal litigation, Netscape was sold to AOL in 1999, and has dipped in relevance ever since. However, a Navigator-like browser, the Mozilla Firefox, has caught on in recent years.
Are you sad about the death of the Navigator? Discuss it in the E-Gear forums.
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