Netscape Reinvents Net Communicator

Continuing the process of reinventing itself as an Internet portal company, Netscape Communications today released a new Netcenter-centric version of Communicator, its market-leading Internet navigation suite.

Netcenter, which competes with consumer Web sites such as Yahoo, Excite and Lycos, offers e-mail, search, news, chat and other communications services.

Version 4.5 of Communicator, which can be downloaded free from the company’s Web site (https://www.netscape.com) improves on the product’s sometimes frustrating address book features and integrates “smart browsing,” which allows users to connect with Web sites by typing plain English terms, such as Los Angeles Times instead of www.latimes.com.

The new version also improves the product’s stability, according to Netscape sources, and makes it easier to use Netcenter’s personalization features.

The improvements come as the Mountain View, Calif., company finally seems to be seeing a payoff from its decision early this year to give away its browser. According to data gathered in September and released last week by Redwood City, Calif.-based Zona Research, Netscape’s browser products are used by 60% of Web users in the workplace, up from 54% in June. Previously, Netscape’s workplace market share had been declining, as it lost ground to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser.

“As far as Netcenter goes, the browser share certainly helps,” said Chris Charron, an Internet analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. “I don’t think they’re yet on parity with some of the other portals in terms of the depth of their consumer channels, but they’ve done a nice job with some of the deals they’ve signed,” such as financial and communications services provided by Citicorp and Qwest Communications.