Netscape Navigator 9 is the most recent release of the Netscape series of browsers produced by the Netscape Communications division of parent AOL, first announced on January 23, 2007. After AOL outsourced the development of Netscape Browser 8 to Mercurial Communications in 2004, Netscape Navigator 9 marked the first Netscape browser to be produced in-house since Netscape 7.
The Beta releases of Netscape Navigator 9 includes enhanced newsfeed support and was more integrated with the Netscape.com Internet portal [7], including enhanced methods of discussion, submission and voting of web pages. [8]. However as of Netscape Navigator 9 beta 3, the Netscape.com integration is now optional, and certain aspects of integration can be manually enabled or disabled [9], with integration being totally removed in Navigator 9.0rc1 as the portal relaunched as Propeller[10]
Like Netscape version 8.x, Navigator 9 is based upon the popular Mozilla Firefox, this time version 2.0, and should have full support of all Firefox add-ons and plugins, some of which Netscape is providing.[11]. Netscape has also been releasing some of its features as extensions for Firefox, including the Site Mail Notifier and Friends’ Activity Sidebar, the Digg Tracker, as well as Netstripe, the new default theme for Netscape 9.
The browser also includes URL self-correction, correcting common URL misspellings,[12] an improved FTP listing interface [13] and a dedicated News menu with integration to the Netscape.com news portal[14]. A quick "link pad" has also been included so web pages can quickly be added to the pad for later viewing without adding to the bookmark lists[15].
Navigator 9 also sees the browser return to multi-platform support across Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. [16] Netscape’s signature splash screen also reappeared in the release candidate of the final program.