January 3, 2008 ~ It was only 15 years ago that the Netscape browser which opened up the entire Internet to mass use, is now effectively dead.

In October 1994, Netscape released Mosaic Netscape 0.9 and the Internet would never be the same. Anyone could install this browser on almost any operating system. 

People will still be able to download and use the Netscape browser indefinitely, but AOL, the company which now owns Netscape will stop releasing security and other updates on Feb. 1. Netscape Director Tom Drapeau recommended that the small pool of Netscape users download Firefox instead.
 
Thanks to Netscape innovations, the static Web site was quickly augmented by RSS feeds and dynamic JavaScript-powered Web pages. Netscape Navigator, the world's first commercial Web browser and the launch pad of the Internet boom, will be pulled off life support Feb. 1 after a 13-year run.

Its current caretakers, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, decided to kill further development and technical support to focus on growing the company as an advertising business. Netscape's usage dwindled with Microsoft Corp.'s entry into the browser business, and Netscape all but faded away following the birth of its open-source cousin, Firefox.

"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," Netscape Director Tom Drapeau wrote in a blog entry Friday.

In recent years, Netscape has been little more than a repackaged version of the more popular Firefox, which commands about 10 per cent of the Web browser market, with almost all of the rest going to Internet Explorer.