Netscape Navigator for Windows

The new Netscape Navigator takes a Firefox foundation, some neat Sidebar innovations, and an inside track to the Netscape.com social-networking and news site to create a browser that has some great features with minimal wonkiness.

• Performance: Netscape Navigator works as well as Firefox in terms of speed and how much computer memory it uses. This makes it good for users who are used to modern browsers.
• Security: It has strong security features, like a master password and SSL and TLS encryption. These features help keep user data safe from people who shouldn't see it.

Unique Functionalities:

• Link Pad: This tool is something you won't find in Firefox. It appears in the sidebar and lets users:
  • Drag and drop links they want to keep but don't want to bookmark.
  • Keep links handy for later without adding them to their bookmarks, which helps avoid clutter.
• Mini Browser: Also in the sidebar, this tool shows websites in plain text. It is meant for quickly looking through pages. However, some users might find it makes things look too busy, especially when you can open many tabs instead.

Although Netscape Navigator is no longer updated, it remains a piece of history for the internet. If you're interested in how web browsers have evolved or just miss the old days of the internet, you might find it interesting to download and explore Netscape.

Netscape.com is a huge part of the new Navigator: some new features might not be of interest if you don't hang out there. The Share button inside the address bar connects you directly to Netscape.com. Highlight content from the page and hit Share. The content becomes a summary, in a box that just needs a few tags to be submitted to the collective. Already-posted articles show Vote and Discuss icons instead of Share.

Bookmarks and History are self-explanatory sidebars, but a series of Netscape.com-related ones work well, too. Netscape Friends' Activity shows you what your friends have been doing, Netscape Tracker tracks the latest site updates, and Netscape News tracks only news posts. Non-Netscape.com users--a small, rebellious group, no doubt--will appreciate the Mini-Browser sidebar, which is essentially two tabs opened simultaneously, and the Link Pad, a savable URL notepad. Drag-and-drop adds a URL, clicking on the saved link opens it in a new tab. This is one of Navigator's new tricks that we love, but wish had more traditional notepad functionality. All Sidebar features have toolbar icons that you can add at will.

Most of the bundled features from version 8 have been removed. IE mode, integrated AOL IM, RSS reader, form filler, and security suite are gone, but the compatibility with Firefox 2 extensions and LinkPad more than make up for the loss. The innovations here might make this more than a backup browser.

• Security Fixes: These security fixes included in Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 have been included in Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.6; Migration: An add-on has been included in this version to help users migrate to either Flock or Firefox; WeatherBug: The WeatherBug add-on has been removed from this version of Navigator.