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I sincerely hope that the throbber won't be badly scaled up to 72x72 pixels!
Frankly, I think the animation needs a little work. I can see the influences - it's like the Netscape 6 throbber[1] retroffited into the circular logo introduced with the launch of Netscape 7 and the Netscape Network (one of AOL's earlier failed attempts to make Netscape.com relevant). However, it's got no jazz. Needs some glow, reflection or shimmer.
The best Netscape throbber (and I will not hear anyone dispute this) was Meteor Shower[1], used in Netscape Navigator 1.1 through 3.04 and created for the Netscape Animation Contest[2]. That had 3,600 pixels of loading animation and provided the necessary visual stimulation needed for downloading a 200 kilobyte JPEG on a 28.8kbps modem.
The next best throbber after Meteor Shower is probably a toss-up between the Netscape 6 throbber and the Netscape 7 throbber[1] (the original 7.0 version, not the glassified version introduced in some 7.1 themes).
The Netscape Communicator throbber[1] is an interesting one. It's definitely inferior to Meteor Shower (smaller size and dithered colours) but has some charm. You get the feeling that the designers tried to improve on Meteor Shower by making it faster and adding more. More colours, more shadows, more reflection. Meteor Shower was quite reserved: a twinkling star, some meteors in the background, with the final foreground - oh my gosh, it actually goes in front of the hill! - meteor saved until last, to avoid overdoing it. There's no such reserve in Communicator: multicoloured meteors fly in from everywhere against a moving starfield background and - what's this? - a freaking eclipse! Some moderation, please! An eclipse is nice but do we really need one every four seconds? Communicator demonstrated a brashness that contrasted with the less-is-more attitude of Meteor Shower.
The current Netscape 8.1 throbber is a bit blah (no-one's even bothered to upload it to Wikipedia). And no treatment of Netscape's throbbers would be complete without a mention of the original Netscape 1.0 throbber[1], which gave the word its name.
Overall, I'm glad that Netscape 9 will have a throbber and pleased to hear it will be back at the traditional far-right position. The decline of throbbers (presumably somewhat related to the rise of high-speed connections, limiting their need) and their replacement with Mac OS X-esque circle-type progress indicators (a la Firefox) remains a troubling trend.
In Internet Explorer 7, even Microsoft has abandoned the throbber (replaced by a blue circle thing) when just a few short years ago they were plastering throbbers on such non-browser applications as file manager windows. Granted, the blue 'e' and globe (or Windows flag and globe) was hardly innovative (even the 'e' was a rip-off of the Netscape 'N', itself derived from the NCSA Mosaic 'S'[1]) but it did the job. Except in Windows XP, where the Windows flag rippled almost imperceptibly, as if caught in a barely detectable breeze, with such limited movement that you had to stare at it for several seconds to determine that it was actually animating.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throbber#Netscape
[2] http://wp.netscape.com/home/contest/ Thanks to the continued Diggification of Netscape.com, the page can longer be accessed at its traditional home of http://home.netscape.com/home/contest/
fns: The status bar indicator is there as well; this post was just an attempt at having some fun with an unsung feature like the activity indicator.
Wow, Alex; very informative! I agree that, on a scale from 1 to awesome, Meteor Shower is super-great.
I can't believe I just wrote over 500 words on the subject of throbbers.
While I'm here, I feel that I must point out something that I first noticed a while back: do you not think that the Netscape Communicator throbber[1] shares some similarities with Sunrise, Sunset[2], which was runner-up number two in the original Netscape Animation Contest?
Both feature a moving starfield backdrop. Both have the 'N' cast a shadow that moves as the light source changes. Both feature a celestial body moving across the sky in an arc, suggestive of the effects of planetary rotation.
I still have trouble believing it's purely a coincidence. (Not that there's anything evil about it; I'm sure the terms of the contest assigned the rights to the entries to Netscape.)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Netscape_throbber_3.gif
[2] http://wp.netscape.com/home/contest/winner2.html
bien, j'attends avec impatience la version final ( il y aura le theme fusion dans Netscape 9 ? ; je me suis habitué a la version 8 )
:)
duke3d
'The big throbber'?
You want a REAL throbber - bring back the "N" from Navigator 1.0N! That thing used to FREAK out a coworker of mine back in the day.
When will we see the Netscape 9 beta? And if so, will it be an open or closed beta program??
I [heart] the N from the original Navigator -- that'd be great to see again. Retro, baby, retro!
The Meteor Shower is pretty awesome as well.
when will be able to download the next version of netscape?
I cant able to open the given link, can you please help?
The next best throbber after Meteor Shower is probably a toss-up between the Netscape 6 throbber and the Netscape 7 throbber[1] (the original 7.0 version, not the glassified version introduced in some 7.1 themes). Greetings
the best for me is my screem resolution.
9:13PMfns
wouldn't a status bar in the url bar like safari or opera work a bit better?