As announced previously, as of March 1st, all official support for Netscape browsers has ceased, including all security updates. Early next week, users of Netscape Browser 8 will be presented with an update that will allow them to migrate directly to the current version of Flock. The update will look like the following:

Users of the Netscape Navigator 9 browser will see the following major upgrade notice available today, released as Netscape 9.0.0.6. When the Netscape 9.0.0.6 upgrade is accepted and run, the following notice will appear, denoting the end of support date (March 1) and the recommendations of Flock and Firefox:

AOL support for Netscape browsers has been extended one month, to March 1st. Mozilla, Flock and AOL are working together to provide tools to ease the migration of existing Netscape browser users to our recommended Flock and Firefox alternatives. Both Flock and Firefox are built on the same Mozilla Firefox codebase.

There will be an update made available for Netscape 9 users through the established Netscape browser update feature that will streamline the process of choosing from these two great browser alternatives.

As promised, the Flock team has delivered a new version of their social browser with an import feature for Netscape Navigator 9 users looking to migrate to a new browser.

As shown in our previous post, in order to migrate from Netscape 9 to Flock, first download and install Flock. The installation process will ask whether or not to import from a previous browser, and there is now a "Netscape" option.

For those who miss the import question - start the browser, and choose File -> Import, then the "Netscape" option.

Its that simple!

But Wait... There's More

In addition to the Netscape import capability, the following fixes are present in Flock v1.0.7:

• Allow Non-admin Windows accounts to install Flock. Please note that on Vista you will still be asked for an administrator password. Also, no Flock shortcut will be created on the desktop.
• Search plugins without associated icons no longer break the search flyout of the search box.
• Fixed Ctrl and Shift functions in the Favorites Manager.

The only thing left to say is, enjoy Flock!

The RSS specification documents, DTDs, and help files for the first versions of RSS (v0.9, v0.91) are being moved to RSSBoard.org, where they will be hosted by the RSS Advisory Board in perpetuity. Netscape will continue to host these files (via redirect) on the My Netscape domain (my.netscape.com) until August 1st, 2008.

Netscape launched RSS on March 15, 1999, with the My Netscape Network and an RSS 0.90 specification written by Ramanathan Guha. Four months later, RSS 0.91 was launched with a specification written by Dan Libby. Five years after revolutionizing the web browser, Netscape sparked another revolution on the web with XML-based syndication.

All websites that produce RSS 0.9 or RSS 0.91 feeds will need to either convert to using the current standard (RSS v2.0), or if desired, convert their v0.9/v0.91 feeds properly using this guide, provided by the RSS Advisory Board, by August 1st. This is a great opportunity for websites to upgrade to RSS 2.0 though, as the conversion guide mentions:

"You can do a lot more with RSS 2.0 that's not covered here, because the format has become more versatile since its humble origins as Netscape's headline-exchange format in 1999. RSS 2.0 supports podcasting, tagging, XML namespaces and other improvements. The RSS Profile contains our best advice for how to take full advantage of the capabilities of RSS."

Here are some links to relevant documents, now hosted on RSSBoard.org:

RSS v0.9 spec: http://www.rssboard.org/rss-0-9-0
RSS v0.9 DTD: http://www.rssboard.org/rss-0.9.dtd
RSS v0.9 Help: http://www.rssboard.org/mnn-help
RSS v0.9 FAQ: http://www.rssboard.org/mnn-faq
RSS v0.9 Character Encoding: http://www.rssboard.org/html-entities
RSS v0.9 Troubleshooting: http://www.rssboard.org/mnn-troubleshooting
RSS v0.9 Future Directions: http://www.rssboard.org/mnn-futures
RSS v0.9 Terms of Use: http://www.rssboard.org/mnn-terms-of-use

RSS v0.91 spec: http://www.rssboard.org/rss-0-9-1-netscape
RSS v0.91 DTD: http://www.rssboard.org/rss-0.91.dtd
RSS 1.0 schema: http://www.rssboard.org/schema-1.0.dtd

For anyone who has questions about upgrading, or need help with RSS 0.9 or RSS 0.91, feel free to post on the RSS Advisory Board's mailing list.

Following on from yesterday's announcement, Netscape users eager to give Flock a try do not have to start with a blank slate. The team at Flock has created a simple migration path for people who want to use Flock and have access to their profile information, bookmarks, etc, from their old Netscape profiles.

This migration path will be available in the Flock v1.06 release, scheduled for early next week. Here is a look at how the migration works: this first image is a dialog box that a person would see when installing Flock - notice the "Netscape" option here under "Import Settings and Data".


Once the "Netscape" profile, etc, has been imported, the remainder of the Flock install proceeds as usual. If you already have Flock installed, and also want to benefit from this simple migration, you can import Netscape settings (shown here on Mac OS X):

AOL has a long history on the internet, being one of the first companies to really get people online. Throughout its lifetime, it has been involved with a number of high profile acquisitions, perhaps the largest of which was the 1999 acquisition of the Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape was known to many as the thought leader in web browsing, and had developed a number of complementary pieces of software that allowed for a rich suite of internet tools.

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. AOL played a significant role in the launch of the Netscape 6 browser, the first Mozilla-based, Netscape-branded browser that was released in 2000 and continued to solely fund the development and marketing efforts of Netscape-branded browsers. In 2003, an independent foundation was created to support the continued development of the open source web suite. AOL was a major source of support for the Mozilla Foundation and the company continued to develop versions of the Netscape browser based on the work of the foundation.

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. 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.

AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be. Given AOL's current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.

Q: What will this mean?
A: We'll continue to release security patches for the current version of the browser, Netscape Navigator until February 1, 2008. After February 1, there will be no more active product support for Navigator 9, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser. This includes Netscape v1-v4.x, Netscape v6, Netscape v7 Suite, Netscape Browser v8, and Netscape Navigator/Messenger 9.

Q: I use Netscape now. Now that Netscape is stopping support, what do I do?
A: The Netscape Team fully stands behind the fine work being done by the Mozilla Foundation. We recommend that you download Mozilla Firefox and give it a try. We know you'll enjoy it!

Q: Will I still be able to use Netscape?
A: You will still be able to download old versions of Netscape from the Netscape Archive (link coming). However, these products are no longer supported. Our recommendation for the nostalgic out there is to download Mozilla Firefox, and add on the Netscape theme and Netscape extensions which are available here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/56836

This way you'll have a current web browser that is very secure, and has the look and feel you have grown accustomed to with Netscape.

Q: Will anyone be around to answer my questions?
A: The following sites will continue to exist and offer information about Netscape after February 1, 2008: The UFAQ (http://www.ufaq.org/), the Netscape Archive, the Netscape Community Forum (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&redirCnt=1).

Please bear in mind that no active product support will be available.

Q: Does this mean that Netscape is dead?
A: While we will no longer support the Netscape web browser as of February 1, 2008, Netscape.com (http://www.netscape.com) will still continue to serve as a general use Internet portal.

We have just completed our planned changes to Netscape.com. As we originally reported, a new portal has been launched on Netscape.com, and the social news site previously located there has been moved to propeller.com.

Over the last week, we have received some very positive feedback, both from early social news adopters and from those who were gradually won over by the communal experience at Netscape.com. I want to thank you all for your great feedback, and want to reiterate that the Propeller social news experience is not going away. On the contrary! In the coming weeks, you will be able to see Propeller content on both the new Netscape.com portal, as well as AOL News.

We have not been neglecting our member feedback either. We do realize that there have been undue performance problems and a few technical glitches over the past few weeks. Let me apologize for this poor user experience, and assure you that we are hard at work in fixing these. We have also had more spam escape our filters lately, and I want to apologize for that as well, and give thanks to all of our great members who reported these stories as such.

Also, we are not happy to simply stand pat with our existing features. In the near future, we will be able to share information about our new social news platform, which we are extremely excited about. It will bring together the best of all worlds: a world class design team, an advanced website platform, and a host of new and interesting ways to enjoy social news.

Best of all, we won't rush the new social news site to the public. We will want to hear your opinion on the new site, as it is because of you, the newly named Propeller member base, that we continue to develop social news services. We really hope that the Netscape.com social news community will come visit Propeller.com. We are confident that you will feel right at home!

Netscape Community Update

We promised you in our last communication about the Netscape.com site that we would get right back to you about where your current social news site will live after we redirect to the new Netscape portal.

The Netscape social news experience that you are currently using today will be migrated and revealed soon at http://www.propeller.com/. We're working hard behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition before we officially launch at this new destination.


It is important to us that you feel empowered to choose how you want to consume your news and participate in the community. As we mentioned in a recent post, the Netscape.com site will soon be redirected to the new Netscape portal, a more traditional and editorially-driven news experience. It's already live, so you can check it out now if you haven't already. You'll notice some elements of our social news site there in short order, so that it will be easy for you to go back and forth and engage in each if you like.

Please continue to check back with us on the Netscape blog (or subscribe to our RSS feed for real time information), as we'll be keeping you in the know about when you can expect to see the Netscape social news site up and running at http://www.propeller.com/.

Our goal is to allow you to continue to share and communicate with each other around the news stories of interest to you, so you can anticipate that the social news site will be coming sooner than later.

We appreciate the patience of our community members as we make these adjustments to better provide you with the options that you deserve.

~ The Netscape Team

To the Netscape Community...

There are some upcoming changes to the Netscape.com site that we hope will improve your experience. We'll be providing two different news options for you based on what you've told us over the past few months.

Visitors to Netscape.com will see a more traditional news experience very soon. Don't worry, the social news site isn't going away! We will keep you updated on where you will be able to find the social news site as we get closer to making the switch.

Why is this happening?

Many of you may remember that Netscape.com used to be much different than it is today. In fact, it used to contain more mainstream news before we shifted to the social news site you see now.

We received some feedback that people really do associate the Netscape brand with providing mainstream news that is editorially controlled. In fact, we specifically heard that our users do have a desire for a social news experience, but simply didn't expect to find it on Netscape.com.

The decision to redirect the current Netscape.com site is based on that feedback and our desire to better serve our community.

Now where can you go?

You have the power to decide!

Have you visited the new Netscape portal experience yet? It's already up and running. If you bookmarked the current Netscape.com site, this is where you'll land once we make the transition. We just launched it recently, so we'll be busy making improvements along the way.

From checking your mail to local weather updates to the latest news headlines to celebrity gossip, you'll find it here.

If the social news experience is more your style, rest assured that we'll be rolling out a site for you in the very near future. You may have read a bit about our plans for the social news site in the press already. We will be sure to communicate specific dates and additional information on the new social news destination in this blog, so stay tuned.

What does this mean for the Netscape browser?

Absolutely nothing will change. The only area that will be affected is Netscape.com. Anything else associated with the Netscape brand will remain the same.

How can you stay in the know about the upcoming social news site?

We want to keep you as up to date as possible as we work to provide the best news experience for you. Please be sure to check back on the Netscape blog frequently, as we'll be updating with new developments. Most importantly, we'll be providing you the new location for the social news site.

We, as a company, remain committed to delivering a compelling social news experience for our users. This move is an effort to make both the former portal experience and the social news experience accessible so that you can decide which you prefer--or, even better, that you want to participate in both.

We look forward to unveiling a new social news site as soon as possible. The ability to post, comment, rate and share the news that's most relevant to you is as important to us as it is to you. We will be maintaining an open dialogue with you, our users, so that you'll be the first to know as soon as we're ready to pull back the curtains.

As some of you may already have noticed, we have stopped marking stories as having hit the homepage for the purposes of showing them on a member's stat page, under "Homepage Stories" (shown in Figure 1).

We are reevaluating our homepage configuration, as well as the calculation of member site rankings. Once we have finished our investigation, the idea of "Homepage Stories" may very well become obsolete.

If you have thoughts on the matter, submit them to: feedback@newnetscape.com. Kindly add a subject line of: "Homepage Stories counts" so we can find them quickly. We will not respond to any of the feedback directly, but will use the feedback in our discussions.

We will leave the module up for the time being, but will not add any new stories to these listings until we have made a decision on the future of this statistic.

Figure 1: An Example "Homepage Stories" display, seen here.

First off, a big thank you to all of the Netscape members that have submitted great feedback on the new My.Netscape site. We are evolving by leaps and bounds, and you are a big part of that evolution. Thanks!

One of the most consistent pieces of feedback that we have received thus far is that we should look into allowing people to log in using their AOL accounts that are currently used for Netscape/AOL mail, were once used for the previous My.Netscape site, and are used throughout the AOL network.

You sent this feedback, and we have been listening. In conjunction with AOL announcing its role as an OpenID provider, and spurred by the rapid pace by which OpenID is being adopted on the Web, on Monday, March 26th, Netscape will not only support signing in with your current AOL screen name, but also OpenID as a way of accessing Netscape.com and My.Netscape.

How does this all work?

In order to log in using your AOL screen name (or other OpenID), you will need to establish an account on Netscape.com. You can use an account already created, and associate an AOL screen name/OpenID with it, or create a new account, already associated with an AOL screen name/OpenID.

Figure 1 - New signup page, you will see options for signing up just to Netscape.com aka "Start from Scratch", signing up via AOL screen name, and signing up via OpenID.




You will notice that in introducing AOL Screen Name/OpenID sign in, that the registration form for Netscape accounts has been dramatically simplified. This simplification was a result from feedback gathered over the lifetime of the new Netscape.com site.

Why did I need to do all this, it seems just as complicated as before to sign up?

The usefulness of these new updates really comes into play after signup, when a member needs to log into Netscape.com or My.Netscape. This process is made even easier if you are already logged into the AOL network / OpenID provider. Take a look:

Figure 2 - Logging in via AOL Screen Name, not currently logged into the AOL network





Figure 3 - Logging in via AOL Screen Name while logged into the AOL network. If you are already logged into the AOL network, you can sign in just by entering your screen name!



Choosing to trust the AOL Screen Name / OpenID provider, indicated by "Remember this site" or "Trust this site" checkboxes/buttons on participating sites, can make login quite painless, even virtually automatic.

We at Netscape hope that these new changes help to ease the registering for new accounts, and also help give more sign in options to members. We are, as always, gathering feedback on making Netscape.com and My.Netscape better services, and hope that this contributes positively towards that goal.

We have received an invitation to have a Netscape engineer sit on the RSS Advisory Board, and have chosen to send Chris Finke, one of our senior engineers. We are excited to have Netscape representation on the board. As one of the original RSS innovators, Netscape looks forward to helping to shape the future of the standard.

At long last, the Netscape team is proud to release a Beta of the next generation My.Netscape, at: http://my.netscape.com

This site will be live tomorrow (Tuesday 3/6).

My.Netscape will retain its identity as a personalized homepage, with a minimum of ad clutter. The initial release will in fact have no ads at all! Our programming staff has worked hard to create a framework that allows for scalability and UI elegance.

We invite any and all feedback on bugs in the product and suggestions for how to better it. We will have a link to a feedback form to help in communicating your thoughts back to the development team, prominently featured at the top of the My Netscape page. We have a long list of extra features that we will add to the My Netscape experience as the weeks go by, but please do let us know how we are doing. We appreciate it!

We are also hard at work at finishing a migration feature that allows previous users of My.Netscape to import their stock portfolio and favorite bookmark preferences. We hope to have that available soon, keep an eye out.

In Figure 1 below, you will see the left side of the My.Netscape screen, including a configured Weather module. The modules can be dragged and dropped to enable easy configuration of your layout. Logging into the site with your existing Netscape.com username and password will allow you to save your module layouts and settings to view them from anywhere.

Figure 1:



In Figure 2, you will see the Add Content layer, which will allow you to easily add modules to your My.Netscape screen. We have just under 100 modules that can be added already, from the mainstream to the off beat, from niche categories to generic widgets. For those who have favorite RSS feeds that aren't listed, you can use our generic RSS feed reader. In most cases, it's as easy as clicking Add!

We hope that all of the folks who patiently waited for this release will enjoy using the new product. There's even a module for a game that many of you requested we resurrect when we launched the new Netscape.com last summer. :-)

Figure 2:

The Netscape development team is happy to announce documentation on our existing APIs, located at: http://www.netscape.com/api

Details on our RSS feeds, syndicated voting, FeedBurner feedflares, Video Syndication, Podcasts and Story submission bookmarklet can all be found on this page, with more great APIs to come. This page will become our API Central, where developers/integrators can come back often to see notes on improved and new APIs.

Comments and questions are welcome here, or you can always bug our resident api nerd, Chris Finke. :)