Netscape Navigator: Rest in Peace

NETSCAPE Navigator, the once ubiquitous web browser that fired the starter’s gun on the dotcom boom in the 1990’s, has passed away quietly, apparently unlamented.

Online giant AOL, which acquired Netscape Communications in 1999, announced it will no longer support the Netscape Navigator – having left both the brand and the browser to wither so long it was beyond revival.

In a short tumultuous life, Netscape rose from obscurity to become a house hold name and the darling of the share markets, before attracting an inevitable corporate suitor in AOL, which abandoned the still immature Navigator.

It was just 13 years old.

The Netscape story is a cautionary tale. It began at the University of Illinois where student programmer Marc Andreessen developed the Mosaic browser, the web pioneer.

Andreesen then co-founded Netscape Communications and the first version of the Netscape browser went live in 1994.

In 1995, Netscape listed on the NASDAQ exchange, announcing to the world the internet had arrived – and you’d better get on board fast. It was listed at US$7 and closed the first day’s trading at US$29, making it the biggest IPO in history – and even 13 years later

The rest is history. Microsoft licenced Mosaic source code from Spyglass (after freaking out), a Uni of Illinois commercialisation unit and constructed the Internet Explorer – which it then used to belt the hell out of Netscape marketshare.

When Microsoft bundled IE with Windows 95 as a free browser, it was all over bar the lawsuits. The move led to the unprecedented and ongoing antitrust actions against Microsoft. But it was the beginning of the end for Netscape, which was eventually sold to AOL for more than US$4 billion in 1999.

One good thing came out of the AOL years, and it is not small. At the time of the acquisition, the Netscape team had begun working on converting their flagship product – the Netscape Communicator web suite – into open source software, under a new name: Mozilla.

That open source effort has delivered Firefox.

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Firefox grabs more IE marketshare

MOZILLA’S open source browser Firefox has taken another big chunk of marketshare from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, according to the latest report from French research group XiTiMonitor.

The report says Firefox’ share of the Europe market climbed 5 per cent in the 12 months to December, giving it 28 per cent of the overall browser market.

In Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Firefox performance is even stronger, claiming 31.1 per cent of the browser market – up from 29.7 per cent in November.

By region, internet users in Oceania are more likely to use Firefox than any other region. The 31.1 per cent Firefox market share in Oceania compared to the Mozilla browser’s 21 per cent in North America, 20.2 per cent in South America and 16.5 per cent in Asia.

For a single country market, Finland leads the world in Firefox users, with more than 45 per cent of the market.

Firefox’ growth in market share has come at the expense of Internet Explorer – which is still the commanding market leader at 66.9 per cent.

More interesting is the successful upgrade conversion rate of Firefox compared to Internet Explorer. Less than half of Internet Explorer site visits are performed with the latest version of the browser, while 93 per cent of all Firefox visits are done with Firefox 2, the latest version.

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Surging Firefox growth challenges IE

OPEN Source browser Firefox usage has continued to surge globally, jumping more than 17 per cent in Australia/New Zealand, and more than 15 per cent in Europe.

New research from internet monitoring firm XitiMonitor demonstrates Firefox is now entrenched as a mainstream browser, taking a market share of close to 30 per cent in Europe and Oceania, and more than 15 per cent in South America.

XitiMonitor found that Oceania, the region made up of Australia/New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, was Firefox' fastest growing region.

XitiMonitor found Firefox was used by 28.9 per cent of Oceania internet users in the July survey, compared to 24.8 per cent of users its March survey.

Firefox growth in Europe jumped to 27.8 per cent in July from 24.1 per cent in March, while North America continued its strong momentum in Firefox take-up, growing to 18 per cent in July market share from 15.1 per cent in March.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is still the clear browser market leader, but continues to lose ground to the open source competitor. In Europe, Xiti found IE market share dropped from 73.3 per cent in to 66.5 per cent in the year from July 2006 to July 2007.

The Opera browser, also an open source system, is the third placed browser with 3.5 per cent, far behind second-placed Firefox.

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