AOL decides to dump Netscape Navigator

AOL, a division of Time Warner, Inc., announced Friday that it has decided to discontinue development and support for Netscape Navigator effective February 1, saying the browser has failed to stand firm against its arch-rival Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer (IE).

AOL, the American global Internet services and media company, said in its official blog that it has stopped development of the Netscape browse, but will keep delivering security patches for the current version of Netscape until Feb. 1, 2008.

According to the blog post on the Netscape Web site by the lead developer for Netscape.com Tom Drapeau, from February 2 onwards the company will no longer provide active support for any version of the software. The Netscape Web site will remain as a general-purpose portal, the blog stated.

Netscape Navigator, which was took over by AOL in the $4.2 billion acquisition of Netscape Communications in 1999, was once used in 80 percent of all Internet sessions, but for the past long time it has been surpassed by Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

It has been declared many years ago by several industry experts that Netscape browser is dead, even though AOL purchased the company and continued to pour money into the development of the browser.

Now, accepting the bitter fact that the browser can never regain market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the Dulles, Virginia-based world's largest Internet access provider AOL ceased its almost nine-year long effort to revive Netscape.

"While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," wrote Drapeau. "Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions."

Drapeau has encouraged Netscape users to switch to Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser, which was launched in 2003, apparently boosting Mozilla Foundation, which was formed with support from AOL, to do battle against IE.

According to the fresh data from Internet metrics firm Net Applications, as of November 2007, IE commanded 77.35% of the browser market, while Firefox and Netscape accounted for 16.01% and 0.6%, respectively.

AOL, formerly known as America Online, Inc., is the world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services.