AOL to Retire Netscape Navigator

January 30, 2008

Netscape Navigator, which hit the Internet market in 1994 as the world’s first commercial Web browser, will be retired on February 1, 2008.

The present owner of the browser, Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, has decided to end further development and technical support for the product to refocus AOL as an advertising business.

Netscape, one of the main players in the Internet boom of the 1990s, saw its market share dwindle after Microsoft Corp. bundled its own browser, Internet Explorer, as part of every Windows operating system in the late 1990s. Today Internet Explorer represents 90 percent of the Web browser market.

Netcape to Make Way for Mozilla Firefox

Netscape’s programming also spawned an open-source project called Mozilla, in which developers from around the world contributed to writing and testing the software. The result was a new standalone browser, Mozilla Firefox, which caused Netscape’s market share to drop to practically nothing after it hit the market in 2002. Firefox presently commands ten percent of the browser market.

Navigator's Roller Coaster Ride to Retirement

The concept behind Netscape was originally developed by a team at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications under the browser name, Mosaic. Team member Marc Andreessen and some of his colleagues left the university to offer the browser to the commercial market. By going public in August 1995, Netscape fueled the Internet boom with the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Wall Street history. Prices for the stock started at the then steep price of $28 per share and doubled on opening day, giving the company a $2 billion market value.

After Microsoft’s Internet Explorer took over the browser market, Netscape eventually dropped its fees for Navigator, but was unable to revive interest in the once-ubiquitous browser. In 1999, Netscape was sold to AOL in a $10 billion deal.

Browser Security and Programming Updates to Cease

Although people will be able to download Netscape Navigator indefinitely, AOL will stop developing and releasing security and programming updates on February 1. Netscape director, Tom Drapeau, recommends that the small number of present-day Netscape users download Firefox as their browser instead.