America Online has updated its Netscape web
browser.
Version 7.2 is the first update since mid-2003. The new release
is based on version 1.7 of Mozilla, the most recent version of the
Mozilla internet application suite.
Improvements in the Netscape web browser include tabbed web
browsing, improved print preview and integrated AOL Instant
Messenger and ICQ.
The Netscape browser had been written off by industry observers
last year after AOL laid off essentially all of its Netscape
software developers and ended development work on the Mozilla
browser technology.
Development work was taken over by the Mozilla open source
project, which was originally started in early 1998 by Netscape and
continued when AOL acquired Netscape later that year. Last year,
the people behind Mozilla created a foundation, largely funded by a
$2m (£1.1m) pledge from AOL, to build, support and promote Mozilla
products.
AOL has not retired the Netscape brand, which it acquired six
years ago for $4.2bn (£2.3bn). AOL is testing a Netscape Desktop
Navigator product and in January launched a low-cost internet
service provider.
Netscape was the most popular browser in the early years of the
web. However, its market share started crumbling when Microsoft
introduced Internet Explorer in the mid-1990s.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service