Netscape Navigator 2
Developer(s)Netscape Communications Corporation
Initial releaseSeptember 18, 1995
PlatformWindows 3.1/95/NT
Classic Mac OS 68K
OS/2 Warp
Linux 1.2, IRIX, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, SunOS, JavaOS, FreeBSD
TypeWeb browser

Netscape Navigator 2 is a discontinued proprietary web browser released by Netscape Communications Corporation as its flagship product. Versions were available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux, IRIX, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, SunOS, JavaOS, and FreeBSD.

The browser introduced and improved a number of features and also added proprietary extensions to the HTML standard. Notably, Netscape 2 was the first browser to support JavaScript and animated GIFs, two technologies still predominant on the web today.

Screenshot of about: page.
Screenshot

Features

The browser introduced many new or improved features:

Netscape Now

Netscape Now! 2.0 web badge

To promote Netscape Navigator, Netscape developed the "Netscape Now" program. The program promoted the display of the "Netscape Now! 2.0" web badge on websites with newly supported features, including frames, live objects, Java applets, and JavaScript.[7][8]

Popular plugins

The support for plugins led to the development of a number of popular plugins to extend Navigator's functionality.

Easter eggs

Netscape had several easter eggs. Navigator 2 featured verse 12:10 from The Book of Mozilla.

The bottom of "about:authors" read:

All human actions are equivalent ... and ... all are on principle doomed ...

— Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, Conclusion, sct. 2

References

  1. ^ a b Shafer, p. 5
  2. ^ Shafer, pp. 4-5
  3. ^ Shafer, pp.5-6
  4. ^ a b Shafer, p. 6
  5. ^ a b c Shafer, p. 7
  6. ^ Shafer, p. 10
  7. ^ "NETSCAPE NOW PROGRAM". Netscape Communications Corporation. 1996. Archived from the original on October 26, 1996. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  8. ^ "NETSCAPE NOW QUALIFICATIONS". Netscape Communications Corporation. 1996. Archived from the original on October 26, 1996. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  9. ^ Shafer, pp. 71-72
  10. ^ "Archived copy". www.infinop.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 1997. Retrieved 12 January 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ McDonald, Glenn (Dec 2, 1996). "Image Compression Technology Optimized for Internet". PCWorld. Retrieved 2 March 2012.[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ Shafer, pp. 72-73
  13. ^ "Lightning Strike Netscape Plugins". Infinop, Inc. 1997. Archived from the original on June 13, 1997. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  14. ^ Shafer, pp. 75-79
  15. ^ Shafer, pp. 74-75
  16. ^ Shafer, pp. 79-82
  17. ^ Shafer, p. 197
Books

External links

Netscape
Web browsers
Categories