Netscape to Unveil Upgraded Browser
Netscape, the maker of the Web-browsing software at the heart of the U.S. government’s antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., is set on Wednesday to unveil a much-delayed upgrade that marks the sharply curtailed ambitions of the once pioneering program.
Netscape 6, the latest version of the program millions rely on as their primary window to the Internet, will be introduced at a trade show in Los Angeles by officials of America Online Inc., which acquired Netscape last year.
But the software that created the first Internet explosion and once held nearly a 90% market share faces an uphill battle against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which now ships in every Windows PC and holds nearly 70% of the market.
“What we are focused on is something we will call ‘size and speed and . . . search,’ ” said Jim Martin, general manager of Netscape Netcenter and one of the AOL officials who will make the announcement.
Martin said Netscape 6 was built around a slimmer base of 5.5 million bytes of programming code. Users can download additional components for electronic mail or Internet phone-calling, but exclude other items, reducing the overall size of the browser.
He added that another key new feature starting with the letter “s” would be revealed at a news conference Wednesday.
Netscape 6 represents something of a clean slate for the company. Programmers threw out much of the bloated software code that had grown up since 1994 and started anew, creating a modular program that speeds access to the Internet, he said.
In contrast to Internet Explorer’s focus on Windows, Netscape will run not only on Microsoft’s Windows, but also Apple’s Macintosh and the Linux operating system, the two main rivals to Windows.
Much of the Microsoft antitrust trial has centered on that company’s tactics versus Netscape. On Monday, the U.S. judge in the case ruled that Microsoft’s actions violated antitrust laws by attempting to monopolize the browser market.
“This used to be a debate between Coke and Pepsi. But the discussion is no longer whether a particular brand of flavored soda sells well,” said Clayton Ryder, an industry analyst with Zona Research of Redwood City, Calif.
“The discussion has become, how does this fit in as part of a fuller meal?” Ryder said, referring to Microsoft’s success in making Internet Explorer the standard to which many companies now develop new Internet programs.
While the Netscape Web software has been plagued by delays in introducing new features, Microsoft has pumped out new versions of its browser that allowed faster access to data and printing, simplified use of audio and video, and other improvements.
Netscape’s new software is the result of a drawn-out effort known as the Mozilla open-source project--a volunteer network of independent Internet programmers who banded together more than two years ago to keep Netscape browser development alive.
The company chose to forego the release of the fifth generation of Netscape last summer, offering users of Netscape incremental changes to its Netscape Navigator 4.7 program.
Under America Online, the Netscape browser has been transformed from a single, monolithic product into a set of component technologies that are used not simply in Netscape 6 but have been licensed to a variety of other industry players.
AOL has licensed the so-called “Gecko” browser technologies at the core of Netscape to IBM, Intel Corp., Liberate Technologies Inc., NetObjects Inc., Nokia, Red Hat Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. for use in separately branded products.
AOL also is using the technology behind Netscape 6 as the core of its “AOL Anywhere” strategy, a bid by the world’s top Internet services company to distribute Web services not only on PCs but via television, wireless phones and hand-held computers.
