End of an era: AOL ends support for Netscape browser

AOL has decided to end support for Netscape Navigator as of February 1, 2008. A once popular browser back in the 90′s seems to have fallen far behind. Netscape was purchased by AOL back in 1999 and was quickly updated to Netscape 6 which was the first Netscape-branded Mozilla based browser. Since then AOL has not had its luck with Netscape and although its reported that they have “invested a great deal of time and energy” they have just not been able to compete with Internet Explorer.

AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reigns fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.

While I have not used Netscape in a long time, it was once a favorite browser of mine and it almost seems sad to see it go. Netscape (the name) will live on as a “general use Internet portal,” which to me seems to be an excuse to gain revenue from a once popular name, which is where AOL has gone with their business.

Read [Netscape Blog]