AOL abandons NetScape Navigator

AOL has discontinued support for its NetScape Navigator browser. The browser is still available for downloaded but AOL will no longer provide security updates. The company will continue to maintain the NetScape website as a portal.

NetScape Navigator was at its most popular in the 1990s, when it was the market leader, used by 90 per cent of Internet users. Now, a mere 0.6 per cent of surfers use the browser.

The open source Firefox browser uses the same code base as Navigator, and AOL is advising Netscape users to switch to either Firefox or Mozilla Flock.

AOL will provide tools to make the switch easier and Navigator-themed skins will be available for Firefox browsers, for those who don’t want to leave Netscape behind entirely.

Netscape was devised by Marc Andreessen, who also co-developed one of the earliest web browsers, Mosaic. It was first released in 1994 by Netscape Communications Corporation.

Its popularity started to wane after Microsoft bundled its rival IE browser with Windows.

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