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.

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.