In the mid-1990s, as the commercial web began to take off, the browser was used by more than 90% of people online. Its market share has since slipped to just 0.6% as other browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox have eroded its user base. Netscape sold itself to AOL in a $10 billion deal completed in early 1999.
The company recommends that users upgrade their browser to either Firefox or Flock, which are both built on the same underlying technologies as Navigator. "I think we represent the hope that was of Netscape. We have picked up many of the things that Netscape launched but we've taken them further in terms of openness and public participation." – says Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla Foundation which coordinates development of Firefox. It is to admire that Ms Baker was one of the first employees at Netscape in 1994.
Netscape was created by Marc Andreessen who as a student had co-authored Mosaic, the first popular web browser. His company Netscape Communications Corporation released the first version in 1994.
According to Shawn Hardin, President and CEO of Flock, Netscape played an important role in making the internet "a relevant mass market phenomenon". He says: "Netscape had a critical role in taking all of these zeros and ones - this very academic and technical environment - and giving it a graphical user interface where an average person could come online and consume information,"
Other companies capitalized on Netscape's success, notably Microsoft, which began to bundle IE with its Windows operating systems. Although this led to legal wrangles over anti-competitive behavior, IE now dominates the browser landscape with an 80% market share.
For the past week Netscape users have been shown a message alerting them to the end of support for the browser. "Given AOL's current business focus, support for Netscape browsers will be discontinued as of
Flock describes itself as "the social web browser" and allows people to see feeds from community websites, such as Flickr and Facebook, and post to blogs without having to navigate to the page.
"There are lots of ways that people are engaging in having a conversation and Flock is very focused on making that as effortless and convenient as possible,"- said Mr Hardin.
However, not all Netscape users are happy about having to change browser.
Netscape Navigator, the world's first commercial Web browser and the launch pad of the Internet boom, will be pulled off life support March 1 after a 13-year run.
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