Netscape

Netscape Communications Corporation was an American company that played a big role in the early days of the internet. It was originally called Mosaic Communications Corporation and had offices in Mountain View, California and later in Dulles, Virginia. The company's most famous product was the Netscape web browser, which was very popular in the mid-1990s. At one point, over 90 percent of people used it to surf the web, but later it lost many users to competitors like Internet Explorer.

One important part of Netscape's history is that an early employee, Brendan Eich, created the JavaScript programming language. This language is still widely used today to make websites more interactive. Another Netscape engineer, Lou Montulli, invented HTTP cookies, which help websites remember information about users. The company also helped create SSL, a way to keep online communications safe, which later became known as TLS.

Netscape's stock was sold from 1995 to 1999 when the company was bought by AOL for about $10 billion. Before this, in 1998, Netscape shared the source code of its browser and started the Mozilla Organization to continue developing it. This led to the creation of the Mozilla Foundation and eventually the Firefox browser. Although Netscape stopped making its browser in 2007, the Netscape name was used until 2025 for an internet service and a special web browser made by a UK company called SentryBay. This service ended on November 30, 2025.

History

Netscape wanted people to think of the Internet like a big encyclopedia full of colorful pages, with email, news, and shopping. The idea for Netscape started at the University of Illinois and became a company in 1994. Its first web browser, called Mosaic Netscape, quickly became very popular, taking most of the market in just four months.

Netscape had a big success when it offered its shares to the public in 1995. The price went up a lot on the first day. But later, a competitor named Internet Explorer started to grow, and Netscape lost many users. In 1998, Netscape was bought by America Online. The company made many changes over the years, but in 2008, they stopped making new versions of their web browser.

Software

Classic releases

Netscape Navigator (versions 0.9–4.08)

Netscape Navigator was the company's web browser, starting from versions 1.0 to 4.8. The first test versions were called Mosaic and later Mosaic Netscape. Because of a legal issue, the name changed to Netscape Navigator. It became very popular quickly because it was advanced for its time.

The browser grew in features and popularity. Version 2.0 added an email reader called Netscape Mail, turning Netscape into more than just a web browser. Version 3.0 faced competition from Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 but was still the most used browser then.

Netscape Communicator (versions 4.0–4.8)

Netscape changed the name to Netscape Communicator for versions 4.0 to 4.8. This version added new features and was successful even with competition from Internet Explorer. In 1998, Netscape announced it would make its software free and open for anyone to help develop, called Mozilla.

Netscape 5

In 1998, a group called the Mozilla Organization tried to create Netscape 5, but the old code was too hard to work with, so they decided to start over.

Mozilla-based releases

Netscape 6 (versions 6.0–6.2.3)

Netscape 6 was built using the Mozilla web browser. It had some problems at first but improved with updates.

Netscape 7 (versions 7.0–7.2)

Netscape 7.0 came out in 2002 and included a popular internet radio feature. AOL stopped some features, but later changed their mind. In 2003, AOL closed the Netscape team, and development slowed down.

Mozilla Firefox-based releases

Netscape Browser (version 8.0–8.1.3)

Between 2005 and 2007, Netscape used the popular Mozilla Firefox for its browser. This version only worked on Microsoft Windows and had some problems with security and user experience.

Netscape Navigator (version 9.0)

Netscape Navigator 9 was planned to work on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X and support add-ons. A test version came out in June 2007, and the final version was released in October 2007.

End of development and support

AOL said it would stop supporting Netscape Navigator on March 1, 2008, and suggested users switch to Flock or Firefox.

Mozilla Thunderbird-based releases

Netscape Messenger 9

In June 2007, Netscape announced an email client called Netscape Mercury, later renamed Netscape Messenger 9. Development was canceled in December 2007.

Product list

Netscape created many tools to help people use the internet. At first, they made a web browser called Netscape Navigator for many types of computers like Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. They also made servers to host websites and manage online services.

Later, Netscape made a full suite of tools called Netscape Communicator. This included the browser, email, calendar, and tools to create web pages. They also made servers for news, mail, scheduling, and more. One of their big ideas was JavaScript, a language that makes web pages interactive. They also tried a way to send updates directly to computers, but it didn’t last long because people didn’t like the ads it brought.

Prior services

Netscape Internet Service

Netscape once offered a dial-up Internet service for $9.95 per month. This service used a special format to make web pages load faster. Later, Verizon took over running this service under the Netscape name. The service began on January 8, 2004, and stopped on November 30, 2025.

Netscape.com

Netscape used links in its browser to drive traffic to its own websites. It had special features like a blog, news updates, and community pages. However, these features are now harder to find on the current AOL Netscape site, which changed in 2007. Today, Netscape.com and Netscape.co.uk redirect to AOL's websites without any Netscape branding.

DMOZ

Main article: DMOZ

DMOZ, also called the Open Directory Project, was a directory of websites created and kept up by volunteer editors. It was owned by Netscape and closed in 2017.