Internet Marketing Blog

Internet Marketing News Alert! The Sun Sets on Netscape

December 31, 2007 – 11:48 am

AOL lays groundbreaking web browser to rest

An era in the world of the internet has come to a close. On December 28, 2007, AOL announced that as of February 1 security updates for Netscape will stop, effectively ending its use as a web browser. Although still downloadable, it will be relegated to an Archive link on the AOL site.

For those of us who went online before the era of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Netscape was the portal into an exciting new world, bursting with possibilities and promise. Originally designed by and offered for download by Mosaic Communications, Netscape was THE first mass-market software to make the colorful world of the internet easy to enjoy for the average (non-technical) consumer.

In its eulogy for the browser, the New York Times credited Netscape with popularizing the internet in the mid-1990s and kicking off the dot-com boom of the late-90s with its IPO in 1995; but perhaps the greatest and most lasting accomplishment Netscape left us can be found in the pages of Thomas L. Friedman’s ground-breaking book, The World is Flat. In the second chapter of his book, Friedman explains that beyond popularizing the web or making the dot-com boom possible, the gift that the founders of Netscape left to the world was to standardize as open source a set of protocols for the movement of information in the internet sphere. This meant that the internet never became the domain of one dominant company (Microsoft) and paved the way for the tremendous success of the internet’s later big-shots, who continue to dramatically shape and re-shape what it means to be online today (Google and Facebook).

Netscape was eventually sold to AOL in 1999, as a part of their expansion in internet technology. It was at that time that the proprietary code on which Netscape was built was released to the public. It became the foundation for the highly acclaimed and second most popular browser, Mozilla Firefox. In its announcement on Netscape, AOL made note of this relationship with Mozilla and strongly encouraged its current Netscape users to switch to the browser

“Given AOL’s current business focus (on ad-supported initiatives) 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 reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.”

For myself, as for many others who hit their first wave surfing the internet on Netscape, AOL’s decision to end support for the browser is akin to watching a good friend walk off into the sunset. Over 250 comments greeted the announcement on the Netscape Blog, “End of Support for Netscape Web Browsers,” many of them touching…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Goodbye old friend……….Netscape………may history think fond of you.”

“Long live Netscape. We will never forget you for your achievements in those early internet days….”

“Wow. is all I can say. I started my internet life using Netscape back in 1994…I really hated to stop using Netscape but it…obviously just got relegated to the dust bin. RIP…”

“BTW, in Spanish we say “navegar en internet” (browse the internet) BECAUSE of Netscape Navigator! …Adiós, Netscape, te extrañaremos…”

“Netscape and it’s founder Marc Andreeson were pioneers in what will always be known as ‘The Information Revolution’”