The Internet browser wars have been waging for several years, with a back and forward lead among the dominant rivals–Microsoft and Netscape. When the Internet hit mainstream USA, Netscape was in the lead with its Navigator browser, which offered more and better features than the default Internet Explorer that came packed in with early versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems.
For a while, Netscape, the parent company, seemed to have a very strong advantage, especially with its ease of use across many platforms and operating systems.
However, as Windows became the standard OS for personal computers, Internet Explorer become the browser used by most Web surfers.
Internet Explorer carried many of the same features that Netscape offered, and was generally faster loading and less confusing to less computer savvy users.
With each new version of Windows (95, 98, NT, 2000 and XP), a new version of Internet Explorer also came. Because the software was default application on nearly every PC around the globe, there was little need to download the mammoth files associated with Netscape (it would take hours to download the Netscape Communicator software over a 56k modem). Needless to say, Netscape fell behind in the rat race and Microsoft secured a good lead.
To this point, Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser. The newest version takes advantages of some of the new features associated with the just-released Windows XP, and for the most part, it has been well received.
However, Netscape, now owned by parent company and media conglomerate AOL Time Warner, has not sat by idly as Microsoft gains a further lead.
In fact, the newest version of its software, Netscape Navigator 6.2, is more feature rich with Windows XP than Internet Explorer.
Some of these new features (once Navigator is set as the default e-mail client) allow users have the software installed to attach files to e-mail directly from their desktop by right-clicking the icon and selecting this choice from the drop down menu.
It will also display the number of new e-mails a user has in his or her inbox as soon as they boot up (or log onto the Internet, if he or she is a dial-up user). The Navigator is also extremely fast loading in the Windows XP environment and has an enriched address book, among other noticeable additions.
These small but useful features will not knock Microsoft down from the top of the heap, but it could bump Netscape up a few steps. Nonetheless, Netscape’s Navigator is still showing that it is a worthy competitor against Internet Explorer, and that the company will not give up until it has regained the thrown.