AOL Starts Touting Netscape 8

3 Feb, 2005 at 12:03am ET Article published in Tech

AOL, desperate to keep its hand in the market, has announced that later this month it will release a test version of the legendary, if outdated, Netscape browser.

In August last year, it reminded people Netscape was still alive by releasing version 7.2 of the browser. That has had no impact whatsoever on the market and the release of Firefox 1.0 in November has made Netscape even more obsolete.

But now AOL is promising a test version of Netscape 8 on 17 February, and ascribing it all manner of new features, mostly to do with current concerns over security. Using a list of known malicious websites, it will automatically adjust security settings to protect the user, the company says. A blacklist will be stored on the user’s PC and updated frequently.

While browsing the Web, users will be alerted with a red check mark in the browser tab to sites known to be part of a phishing scam or that distribute spyware or other malicious code. Browser technologies such as JavaScript, cookies and ActiveX will be disabled.

Source: TechWorld

Comments

3 Feb 2005 ~ 12:06am primesuspect sweet. sites like short-media should work just GREAT without session cookies
3 Feb 2005 ~ 1:21pm a2jfreak I think maybe those features are disabled automatically when going to a site on the black-list, not when going to any site. I sure hope it's that way . . .
3 Feb 2005 ~ 4:42pm -Ben Using a list of known malicious websites, it will automatically adjust security settings to protect the user, the company says. A blacklist will be stored on the user's PC and updated frequently.
3 Feb 2005 ~ 10:55pm drasnor I bet free.aol.com gets installed into your 'Trusted Sites' list. Yeah, like I trust AOL :shakehead.

-drasnor
17 Feb 2005 ~ 9:31am xtreme did the netscape 8.0 have the option to disable download just like IE? i think we need that option
24 Feb 2005 ~ 1:46am Unregistered Oh sheesh, this was SO full of BS. I'll tear it apart, sentence by sentence:

"In August last year, it reminded people Netscape was still alive by releasing version 7.2 of the browser."

Yes, that's correct, based on Mozilla Suite 1.7.2, with the usual additions, like the lightweight xul based AIM/ICQ client and Netscape Webmail pseudo-imap4 support added to the email client.

>" That has had no impact whatsoever on the market"

Yeah, like I give a f*ck about "the impact on the market" of everything I use. :-P. Whoever wrote this should be trown into the sea.

> and the release of Firefox 1.0 in November has made Netscape even more >obsolete.

Oh really? Says who?. Netscape 7.2, based on Mozilla Suite, is an INTEGRATED application. If I choose to install FIREFOX + THUNDERBIRD for email + "NVU" to edit HTML (the stand-alone version of Mozilla Composer) then you end up with THREE DIFFERENT COPIES OF THE GECKO RUNTIME ENGINE. And when/if you run the three, you have THREE RUNTIMES RUNNING AT ONCE!. How great!.

On the other hand, Netscape 7.2 is a tightly integrated suite of applications that work very well together.

The Firefox Jihad and the Micro$oft apologetics can bitch and whine all they want, but it doesn't make the FF+TB+NVU or MSIE+Outlook+Frontpage combos any better.

Let's see how "irrelevant" Netscape 8 will be. I anticipate it will be a success. It will combine the best of Firefox (stability, recognition), the best of Netscape 7.x (integrated AIM/ICQ lightweight XUL based client on a sidebar tab), and the Netscape.com portal.

But now AOL is promising a test version of Netscape 8 on 17 February, and ascribing it all manner of new features, mostly to do with current concerns over security. Using a list of known malicious websites, it will automatically adjust security settings to protect the user, the company says. A blacklist will be stored on the user's PC and updated frequently.

While browsing the Web, users will be alerted with a red check mark in the browser tab to sites known to be part of a phishing scam or that distribute spyware or other malicious code. Browser technologies such as JavaScript, cookies and ActiveX will be disabled.