- Image by OiMax via Flickr
If you had a computer in the early years of the Internet, chances are that you have a great deal of experience with using Netscape Navigator. If you only started your Internet browsing in the past five or 1 years, chances are that your experience with it has been rather limited. The story of Netscape Navigator has been a long one, and as of yet, it has been the story of a Web browser that found a steep decline in its popularity after its meteoric rise. In the early to late 90s, using Netscape was an expected part of browsing the Internet. Together with Internet Explorer, it was one of the few Internet browsers that was universally recognized and used.
With its understated style and basic capabilities, it made it possible to browse the Web, but it had few other features to speak of in the beginning. But, as it grew, it started to add newer features to its upgrades, building a customer base quickly. And with little other competition out there, it enjoyed plenty of success. At the height of its popularity, in the mid-90s, it had an enormous market share with about half of the Web browser market. It could be used on just about any operating system, and it came out with newer and better versions regularly as so many Web browsers do today. However, none of that lasted very long.
As more and more people started to use the Internet, more and more of them were demanding newer and better features, always on the lookout for a better Web browser to use. While Netscape Navigator was a good big fish in a small pond, when the pond became big the fish could not sustain its size. The browser because to lose market share rapidly as newer and better Web browsers entered the marketplace. Netscape tried valiantly to keep up with the latest browsers and to match their features, but the browser never regained its original market share. It is now an almost-forgotten chapter in Internet history.
