Just recently, I was thinking about Netscape and how huge it was years ago. It was once one of the most popular browsers, and web designers everywhere made sure their sites were compatible with it. Today, Netscape is barely a blip on the radar. Can the release of Navigator 9 change that? Let’s find out.

Will this familiar icon ever return to a prominent place on your desktop?

On the surface, this seems like an exciting update, with some features that will make the browsing experience more pleasant. The first new attribute worth noting is the URL correction, which recognizes common typos such as “.cmo” and “.ogr”. When Navigator 9 identifies one of these common errors, it asks you if you meant to type something else. I’ve often wished that Safari and Firefox had this functionality. Another new and noteworthy feature is the Link Pad, a sort of temporary storage space in the sidebar where you can keep links that you’d like to revisit but that you don’t wish to add to your bookmarks. The Link Bar is very useful when you’re conducting research or planning a trip, and only need the links for a short while.

A quick fix for all of your .cmo, .eud, .ogr, and .gvo typos.

Navigator 9 also seems faster and more stable than my Safari 3 Beta. That’s a good thing, but I don’t really consider it a feature. These days, speed and reliability are simply par for the course. And designers, you should know that your web pages will look the same as they do in Firefox, since both browsers are built around Mozilla technologies. This means you can test in either Netscape or Firefox with relative confidence.

That brings us to the big problem with Netscape Navigator 9. It wants to be Firefox. Badly. It’s great that you can use all of your Firefox add-ons in Netscape Navigator 9, but I have to wonder why you wouldn’t just use Firefox in the first place. Netscape even suggests that you visit Mozilla Firefox’s site if you need help or support. That’s like Dell suggesting you go to HP for help because both machines use Intel processors. It feels like a bit of a cop-out on Netscape’s part. Branding experts will surely gasp when Netscape’s support link delivers them to a page touting Firefox.

But that’s just one aspect of the identity crisis. The name of Netscape’s browser has always been variable. While it’s now officially Netscape Navigator 9, or just Navigator 9, most folks will still probably refer to it as simply Netscape. But no matter the name, Netscape it isn’t what it once was: The browser with the email client and web editor.

So while some of Netscape 9’s new features are pretty cool, I don’t think they justify the browser’s existence. Firefox and Safari will likely replicate the most useful features in their future releases; Internet Explorer will probably do the same someday (you know how slow they can be). In the meantime, I’ll stick with my current browsers. What about you?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.