Remember Netscape Navigator?

December 15, 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Netscape Navigator, due to the efforts of Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark (the one I remember most though was Jim Barksdale who came aboard as CEO in 1995).

Navigator was the flagship product of Netscape Communications Corp, and was the dominant browser in the 1990s based on usage share. By 2002, it had all but disappeared, though we still owe a debt to it every time we utilize JavaScript.

In the late 90s Netscape was purchased by AOL for close to $10 billion. Then, it was included in the acquisition of AOL by TimeWarner at the turn of the 21st Century. On July 15, 2003 TimeWarner disbanded Netscape laying off most of the programmers and even removing the Netscape logo from the building.

In 2007, Netscape Navigator was considered the "best tech product of all time" by PC World due to its impact on the Internet.

And now, twenty years later we are reminded of how forward-thinking Netscape was by simply reading what was published in MacWorld in 1995:

Netscape Communications wants you to forget all the highway metaphors you've ever heard about the Internet. Instead, think about an encyclopedia—one with unlimited, graphically rich pages, connections to E-mail and files, and access to Internet newsgroups and online shopping.

—Netscape Navigator, Macworld (May 1995)[11]

             Quote source: Wikipedia

Thanks Netscape. I still recall the early days of the Internet opening the Navigator browser with fond memories.

How about you? Did you ever use Netscape?

houston@figment-consulting.com