Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator 4. 08
Developed by	Netscape Communications Corporation
Initial release	15 December 1994 (Netscape Navigator 1. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company 0)
Written in	?
Platform	Cross-platform
Available in	?
Genre	Web browser
License	?
Website	Netscape Browser Archive

Netscape Navigator, also known as Netscape, is a proprietary web browser that was popular during the 1990s. A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows In computing cross-platform (also known as multi-platform) is a term used to refer to Computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a Once the flagship product of Netscape Communications Corporation and the dominant browser in usage share, its user base had almost completely evaporated by 2002, partly due to the inclusion of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser with the Windows operating system, but also due to lack of significant innovation after the late 1990s. flagship is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels a designation given on account of being either the largest fastest newest most heavily armed or for publicity purposes the most well Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company Usage share, in Web browser statistics is the percentage of visitors to a group of web sites that use a particular browser See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Netscape's demise was a central component of Microsoft's antitrust trial, where the court ruled that (among other things) bundling Internet Explorer with Windows was an illegal monopolistic business practice. United States v Microsoft There were many civil actions taking place in May 18 1998 In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient

The Navigator browser was succeeded by the Netscape Communicator internet suite, followed by later releases Netscape 6, Netscape 7 and Netscape Browser 8. Netscape Communicator is an Internet suite that was produced by Netscape Communications Corporation. An Internet suite is an Internet -related Software suite. Internet suites usually include a Web browser, E-mail client (often with a News Netscape 6 was the name of Netscape Communications Corporation 's proprietary Cross-platform Internet suite from versions 6 Netscape 7 was a series of proprietary Cross-platform Internet suites created by Netscape Communications Corporation and then in-house by Netscape (web browser Netscape Browser is the name of a proprietary Windows Web browser published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications

However it was confirmed on 1 May 2007 the Netscape Navigator name would once again be re-generated in the next release of Netscape's browser, Netscape Navigator 9. Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Netscape Navigator 9 is the most recent and final release of the Netscape series of browsers produced by the Netscape Communications division of parent AOL ^[1]

AOL officially stopped development of Netscape Navigator on 28 December 2007 and originally planned to continue support for the browser in the form of security updates until 1 February 2008. Events 1065 - Westminster Abbey is Consecrated. 1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common This date was later extended to 1 March 2008. Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common AOL canceled support on that date, but will allow users to download archived versions of the browser. AOL also continues to maintain the Netscape website as an Internet portal. ^[2]

History and development

The creation

One of the central figures in the Netscape story is Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape Communications Corporation and co-author of Mosaic at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Marc Andreessen (born July 9, 1971, in Cedar Falls Iowa and raised in New Lisbon Wisconsin, United States) is known as a entrepreneur Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company Mosaic is the browser which popularized the World Wide Web. It was also a browser for earlier concepts such as Ftp, Usenet, and Gopher The National Center for Supercomputing Applications ( NCSA) is one of five original centers in the National Science Foundation 's Supercomputer Centers Program and a

After his graduation from Illinois in 1993, Andreessen moved to California to work at Enterprise Integration Technologies. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Andreessen then met with Jim Clark, the recently-departed founder of Silicon Graphics. Dr James H Clark (born 1944 is a prolific Entrepreneur and former computer scientist Silicon Graphics Inc (commonly initialised to SGI, historically sometimes referred to as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) is a company Clark believed that the Mosaic browser had great commercial possibilities and provided the seed money. Soon Mosaic Communications Corporation was in business in Mountain View, California, with Andreessen appointed as a vice-president. Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The University of Illinois was unhappy with the company's use of the Mosaic name, so "Mosaic Communications Corporation" changed its name to Netscape Communications (thought up by sales representative Greg Sands) and its flagship web browser was the Netscape Navigator. This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of

Mosaic Netscape 0. 9, a pre-1. 0 version. Note the image of the Mozilla mascot, and the Mosaic logo in the top-right corner.

Netscape announced in its first press release (October 13, 1994) that it would make Navigator freely available to all non-commercial users, and Beta versions of version 1. 0 and 1. 1 were indeed freely downloadable in November 1994 and March 1995, with the full version 1. 0 available in December 1994. Netscape's initial corporate policy regarding Navigator is interesting, as it claimed that it would make Navigator freely available for non-commercial use in accordance with the notion or spirit of the Internet:

"By making Netscape available free to individuals for personal use, the company builds on the tradition of software products for the Internet being offered free of charge. "

http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease1.html

However, within 2 months of that press release, Netscape apparently reversed its policy on who could freely obtain and use version 1. 0 by only mentioning that educational and non-profit institutions could use version 1. 0 at no charge:

http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease8.html

The reversal was complete with the availability of version 1. 1 beta on March 6, 1995, in which a press release states that the final 1. 1 release would be available at no cost only for academic and non-profit organizational use. Gone was the notion expressed in the first press release that Navigator would be freely available in the spirit of internet software.

The first few releases of the product were made available in "commercial" and "evaluation" versions; for example, version "1. 0" and version "1. 0N". The "N" evaluation versions were completely identical to the commercial versions; the letter was there to remind people to pay for the browser once they felt they had tried it long enough and were satisfied with it. This distinction was formally dropped within a year of the initial release, and the full version of the browser continued to be made available for free online, with boxed versions available on floppy disks (and later CDs) in stores along with a period of phone support. Email support was initially free, and remained so for a year or two until the volume of support requests grew too high.

During development, the Netscape browser was known by the code name Mozilla, which became the name of a Godzilla-like cartoon dragon mascot used prominently on the company's web site. Mozilla was the Mascot of the now disbanded Netscape Communications Corporation. Etymology Name "Godzilla" is a combination of two Japanese words and. The term mascot – defined as a term for any person animal or object thought to bring Luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common The Mozilla name was also used as the User-Agent in HTTP requests by the browser. A user agent is the client application used with a particular Network protocol; the phrase is most commonly used in reference to those which access the World Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP) is a Communications protocol for the transfer of information on the Internet. Other web browsers claimed to be compatible with Netscape's extensions to HTML, and therefore used the same name in their User-Agent identifiers so that web servers would send them the same pages as were sent to Netscape browsers. Mozilla is now a generic name for matters related to the open source successor to Netscape Communicator. Mozilla was the official public original name of Mozilla Application Suite by the Mozilla Foundation, currently known as SeaMonkey suite. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge

The rise of Netscape

Netscape Navigator 1. 22

When the consumer Internet revolution arrived in the mid-to-late 1990s, Netscape was well positioned to take advantage of it. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks With a good mix of features and an attractive licensing scheme that allowed free use for non-commercial purposes, the Netscape browser soon became the de facto standard, particularly on the Windows platform. A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Internet service providers and computer magazine publishers helped make Navigator readily available. An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet

An important innovation that Netscape introduced in 1994 was the on-the-fly display of webpages, where text and graphics appeared on the screen as the web page downloaded. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Earlier web browsers would not display a page until all graphics on it had been loaded over the network connection; this often made a user stare at a blank page for as long as several minutes. With Netscape, people using dial-up connections could begin reading the text of a webpage within seconds of entering a web address, even before the rest of the text and graphics had finished downloading. Dial-up Internet Access is a form of Internet access via Telephone lines The user's computer or Router uses an attached Modem connected to a This made the web much more tolerable to the average user.

Netscape Navigator 2. 02

Through the late 1990s, Netscape made sure that Navigator remained the technical leader among web browsers. Important new features included cookies, frames, and JavaScript (in version 2. HTTP cookies, or more commonly referred to as Web cookies tracking cookies or just cookies are parcels of text sent by a server to a Web client (usually In Computing, an HTML element indicates structure in an HTML document and a way of hierarchically arranging content JavaScript is a Scripting language most often used for Client-side web development 0). Although those and other innovations eventually became open standards of the W3C and ECMA and were emulated by other browsers, they were often viewed as controversial. Ecma International (Ecma is an international private (membership-based non-profit Standards organization for information and communication systems Netscape, according to critics, was more interested in bending the web to its own de facto "standards" (bypassing standards committees and thus marginalizing the commercial competition) than it was in fixing bugs in its products. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. Consumer rights advocates were particularly critical of cookies and of commercial web sites using them to invade individual privacy.

In the marketplace, however, these concerns made little difference. Netscape Navigator remained the market leader with more than 50% usage share. Usage share, in Web browser statistics is the percentage of visitors to a group of web sites that use a particular browser The browser software was available for a wide range of operating systems, including Windows (3.1, 95, 98, NT), Macintosh, Linux, OS/2, and many versions of Unix including DEC, Sun Solaris, BSDI, IRIX, AIX, and HP-UX, and looked and worked nearly identically on every one of them. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Windows 31x was a major release of Microsoft Windows. Several editions were released between 1992 and 1994 succeeding Windows 3 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. Windows 98 ( codenamed Memphis) is a graphical Operating system released on 25 June 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95 Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks OS/2 is a computer Operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry Solaris is a Unix -based Operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS. Berkeley Software Design Inc (BSDI or later BSDi was a corporation which developed sold licences to and supported BSD/OS (previously known as BSD/386 a commercial and IRIX is a computer Operating system developed by Silicon Graphics Inc HP-UX (Hewlett Packard UniX is Hewlett-Packard 's proprietary implementation of the Unix Operating system, based on System V (initially Netscape began to experiment with prototypes of a web-based system, known internally as "Constellation", which would allow a user to access and edit his files anywhere across a network no matter what computer or operating system he happened to be using.

Industry observers confidently forecast the dawn of a new era of connected computing. The underlying operating system, it was believed, would become an unimportant consideration; future applications would run within a web browser. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination This was seen by Netscape as a clear opportunity to entrench Navigator at the heart of the next generation of computing, and thus gain the opportunity to expand into all manner of other software and service market.

Fall of Netscape

Usage share of Netscape Navigator, 1994–2007

Microsoft saw Netscape's success as a clear threat to the dominant status of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. It began a wide-reaching campaign to establish control over the browser market. Browser market share, it was reasoned, leads to control over internet standards, and that in turn would provide the opportunity to sell software and services. Microsoft licensed the Mosaic source code from Spyglass, Inc., an offshoot of the University of Illinois, and turned it into Internet Explorer. Spyglass Inc ( was an Internet software company based in Champaign Illinois. Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical

The resulting battle between the two companies became known as the browser wars. The term "browser wars" refers to the competition for dominance in the Web browser marketplace Versions 1. 0 and 2. 0 of IE were vastly inferior in almost every way to contemporary versions of Netscape Navigator; IE 3. 0 (1996) began to catch up to its competition; IE 4. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) 0 (1997) was the first version that looked to have Netscape beaten although it did not overtake Netscape. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar With IE 5.0 (1999), with many bug fixes and stability improvements, that saw Navigator's marketshare plummet below IE for the first time. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (abbreviated IE5) is a graphical Web browser released in March 1999 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar)

Netscape 3. 04

Netscape Navigator 3. 0 came in two versions, Standard Edition and Gold Edition. The latter consisted of the Navigator browser with mail and news readers and a web page WYSIWYG composition tool integrated into it. WYSIWYG (ˈwɪziwɪg or /ˈwɪzɪwɪg/ is an Acronym for W hat Y ou S ee I s W hat Y ou G The extra functionality only made the software program larger, slower, and more prone to crashes, and the decision to integrate all these features together was widely criticized. But this integrated version became the only version when it was renamed Netscape Communicator in version 4. 0; the product's name change (Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale insisted that Communicator was a general-purpose client application which contained the Navigator browser) diluted its name recognition and confused users. Jim Barksdale (born January 24, 1943) was the president and CEO of Netscape Communications Corporation from January 1995 until the company merged

Netscape Navigator 4. 07

The aging Communicator 4. x code could not keep up with Internet Explorer 5.0. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (abbreviated IE5) is a graphical Web browser released in March 1999 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows Typical web pages had become graphics-heavy, often JavaScript-intensive, and were constructed with increasingly complex HTML code that used features designed for specific narrow purposes but redeployed them as global layout tools (in particular this applied to HTML tables, which Communicator struggled to render). JavaScript is a Scripting language most often used for Client-side web development The Netscape browser, once regarded as a reasonably solid product, came to be seen as crash-prone and buggy. A crash in Computing is a condition where a program (either an application or part of the Operating system) stops performing its expected function and also A software bug (or just “bug” is an error flaw mistake Failure, fault or “undocumented feature” in a Computer program that prevents it It didn't help that some versions of it tended to re-download an entire web page to re-render it when the browser window was resized, a considerable nuisance to dial-up users, and would usually crash when the page contained anything but the most simple Cascading Style Sheets. In addition, the browser's somewhat dated-looking interface didn't have the modern appearance of Internet Explorer.

By the end of the decade, Netscape's web browser had unquestionably lost its former dominance on the Windows platform. Even on other platforms it was threatened, both by the gradual rise of open source browsers and by the August 1997 agreement that resulted in an investment of $150,000,000 by Microsoft in Apple, which included a requirement that Apple switch the default browser in new installations of Mac OS from Netscape to Internet Explorer. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical The latest IE mac release at the time was Internet Explorer version 3. Internet Explorer for Mac (also referred to as Internet Explorermac, IEmac or Internet Explorer Macintosh Edition) was a proprietary Web 0 for Macintosh, but IE4 was released later that year. Of greatest significance, though, was Microsoft's massive and ultimately successful campaign to get ISPs and PC vendors to distribute Internet Explorer to their customers instead of Netscape. An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet This was helped in part by Microsoft's investment in making IE brandable, such that it was a quick operation to create a customized version of IE. Brandable software is typically Software created by one company for the purpose of allowing other companies to obtain Resell rights or Giveaway rights to Also, web developers increasingly used proprietary, browser-specific extensions in the web pages they wrote. Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. Both Microsoft and Netscape were guilty of this behavior, having added substantial proprietary HTML tags of their own into their browsers, the result of which was that users were forced to choose between two competing, almost entirely incompatible web browsers.

In March 1998, Netscape released most of the code base for Communicator under an open source license. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) In Computer science, source code (commonly just source or code) is any sequence of statements or declarations written in some Human-readable An open source license is a copyright License for Computer software that makes the source code available under terms that allow for modification and redistribution The product named Netscape 5, which was intended to be the result, was never released, as managers decided that the poor quality of Netscape's code made a complete rewrite their only viable option. This product, taking growing contributions from the open-source community, was dubbed Mozilla, once the codename of the original Netscape Navigator. The Mozilla Application Suite (originally known as Mozilla, marketed as the Mozilla Suite, and Code named SeaMonkey) is a Cross-platform Netscape programmers gave Mozilla a different GUI and released it as Netscape 6 and later Netscape 7. After a lengthy public beta, Mozilla 1. 0 was released on June 5, 2002. Events 70 - Titus and his Roman Legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem in the Siege of Jerusalem See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. The same code base, most notably the Gecko layout engine, became the basis of several standalone applications, including Firefox and Thunderbird. Gecko is a Layout engine currently developed by Mozilla Corporation, known as the layout engine of the Firefox web browser Mozilla Application A layout engine, or rendering engine, is software that takes marked up content (such as HTML, XML, image files etc Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, Open source, Cross-platform e-mail and News client developed by the Mozilla Foundation.

These products, however, suffered from a protracted development process that took several years to provide results, in the meantime America Online had bought out Netscape and released Netscape 6 from a pre-beta quality build of the open source Mozilla browser. As a result, many users continued to migrate to Internet Explorer, and the Netscape browser itself has largely been abandoned.

On December 28, 2007, Netscape developers announced that AOL has canceled development for Netscape Navigator and will also cancel support by February 1, 2008. Events 1065 - Westminster Abbey is Consecrated. 1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common ^[3] After then, archived and unsupported versions of the browser will be available for download.

Release history

Netscape Navigator version 2. 0

• Mosaic Netscape 0. 9 – October 13, 1994
• Netscape Navigator 1. Events 54 - Nero ascends to the Roman throne 409 - Vandals and Alans crossed the Pyrenees Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) 0 – December 15, 1994
• Netscape Navigator 1. Events 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) 1 – March 1995
• Netscape Navigator 1. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 22 – August 1995
• Netscape Navigator 2. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 0 – March 1996^[4][5]
• Netscape Navigator 2. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) 01
• Netscape Navigator 2. 02
• Netscape Navigator 3. 0 – August 19, 1996
• Netscape Navigator 3. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) 01
• Netscape Navigator 3. 02
• Netscape Navigator 3. 03
• Netscape Navigator 3. 04 – October 4, 1997
• Netscape Navigator 4. Events 610 - Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar 0 – June 1997
• Netscape Navigator 4. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar 01
• Netscape Navigator 4. 02
• Netscape Navigator 4. 03
• Netscape Navigator 4. 04
• Netscape Navigator 4. 05
• Netscape Navigator 4. 06 – August 17, 1998
• Netscape Navigator 4. Events 986 - A Byzantine army was destroyed in the pass of Trajan's Gate by the Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) 07
• Netscape Navigator 4. 08 – November 9, 1998 (Last release for 16-bit Windows and 68k Macintoshes)

Criticism

Netscape Navigator has mostly been criticized for implementing non-standard HTML markup extensions such as the BLINK tag, which is sometimes referred to as a symbol for Netscape's urge to develop extensions not standardized by the W3C. Events 694 - Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims sentencing all Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) The blink element is a non-standard presentational HTML element that indicates to a User agent (generally a Web browser) that the page author intends the Netscape has also been criticized for following actual web standards poorly, often lagging behind or supporting them very poorly or even incorrectly. This criticism wasn't very loud during the days of its popularity as web designers then often simply developed for Netscape Navigator, but came to be an increasing annoyance to web designers who wish to provide backward compatibility, most often with Netscape Navigator 4 and Netscape Communicator, to their web sites. In Technology, especially Computing (irrespective of platform a product is said to be backward compatible when it is able to take the place of an older product Today, many web masters simply do not choose to support these old versions, due to their extremely small market share and lack of standardization.

However, Netscape's own contributions to the web of this sort hasn't always been of frustration to web developers. JavaScript (which has little to do with Java) was for example submitted as a new standard to Ecma International, resulting in the ECMAScript specification. JavaScript is a Scripting language most often used for Client-side web development Ecma International (Ecma is an international private (membership-based non-profit Standards organization for information and communication systems ECMAScript is a Scripting language, standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 specification. This move allowed it to be more easily supported by multiple web browsers and is today an established cross-browser scripting language, long after Netscape Navigator itself has dropped in popularity. Another example is the FRAME tag, that is also widely supported today, and even ended up becoming incorporated into official web standards such as the "HTML 4. 01 Frameset" specification.

In a 2007 PC World column, the original Netscape Navigator was considered the "best tech product of all time" due to its impact on the internet. PC World is a global Computer magazine published monthly by IDG. ^[6]

See also

• Browser timeline
• Comparison of web browsers
• List of web browsers
• Netscape
• Mosaic
• Mozilla

References

External links

• Netscape handbook 1.1 / 2.02 / 3.0, and knowledge base
• OS/2 Navigator unofficial home page, Y2K certificates
• Fortify Netscape 2. 02 - 4. 72 (unofficial security upgrades)
• Netscape 3. 0 hidden features, compatibility screen shots