01.02.2008; end of a browser era
TechCrunch: "A Sad Milestone: AOL To Discontinue Netscape Browser Development… …Please observe a moment of silence for the Netscape browser. Netscape Navigator, the browser that launched the commercial Internet in October 1994, will die on February 1, 2008.".
I remember my first browsing steps in 1993 into that new thing called the ‘world wide web’…I was using the Mosaic, a browser developed at the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) by a team lead by Marc Andreessen, who is indeed, the co-founder of Netscape Communications. Netscape became the browser of choice, it marks the start of the growing world wide web era.
Browsing in those days was reserved for a limited group of people, which made it something special…Netscape represents that period in my life, it certainly has an emotional value for me.
Microsoft killed the Netscape browser by integrating its own IE browser (yes, the Internet Exploder Explorer) with its operating system. Despite AOL purchasing Netscape Communications in 1998, the browser lost traction…its spin-off Mozilla Firefox even replaced Netscape’s earlier position as #2.
The last best news out of Netscape camp was Jason Calacanis’ effort as Netscape CEO to make it THE social news website of choice. Things seemed to improve and Netscape gained traction as portal…however, after Jason quit AOL last year, it became clear that without his vision, CEO 2.0 leadership and energy the end was near…
