Netscape Navigator

Netscape Navigator was a brand of web browsers first developed and sold by Netscape Communications Corporation in 1994 that was progressively developed until its discontinuation in the late 1990s before the brand was briefly revived for the release of Netscape Navigator 9 under AOL in 2007. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corporation and was the dominant web browser in terms of usage share in the 1990s, but by around 2003 its user base had all but disappeared. This was partly because Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system. The business demise of Netscape was a central premise of Microsoft's antitrust trial, wherein the Court ruled that Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system was a monopolistic and illegal business practice. The decision came too late for Netscape, however, as Internet Explorer had by then become the dominant web browser for Windows. Initially a standalone product, the Netscape Navigator browser was incorporated into the Netscape Communicator internet suite in 1997. After primary development of the browser engine transitioned to the open source Mozilla project, which included a rewrite of the engine source code, the Netscape Navigator brand name returned in 2007 when AOL announced Netscape Navigator 9. On December 28, 2007, AOL canceled its development but continued supporting the web browser with security updates until March 1, 2008. AOL allows downloading of archived versions of the Netscape Navigator web browser family.