Netscape Navigator 2
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Internet |
| Products | Netscape Navigator 2 web browser |
Netscape Navigator 2 was a proprietary web browser developed and distributed by Netscape Communications Corporation as their premier software offering. It was compatible with multiple platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux, IRIX, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, SunOS, JavaOS, and FreeBSD.
This browser version introduced and refined a variety of features, such as unique HTML extensions. Importantly, Netscape Navigator 2 was the pioneering browser to implement support for both JavaScript and animated GIFs, which remain widely used web technologies today.
Features
Among the significant enhancements and new capabilities were:
- Introduction of support for progressive JPEGs, whereas earlier releases only handled baseline JPEGs
- Compatibility with the GIF89a format, expanding beyond the prior support limited to GIF87a
- Client-side image map functionality, improving upon the earlier server-side only maps
- Plugin integration replacing previous reliance solely on helper applications
- Improved bookmark management tools
- Ability to upload files via FTP
- Implementation of LiveScript support (now known as JavaScript)
- Added support for OLE
- Inclusion of HTML frames functionality
- Launch of Netscape Mail and Netscape News, providing an e-mail client and a Usenet News reader respectively
Netscape Now
To encourage adoption of new web standards, Netscape initiated the "Netscape Now" campaign. This program motivated websites to display the "Netscape Now! 2.0" emblem when they incorporated features such as frames, live objects, Java applets, and JavaScript.
Popular plugins
The introduction of plugin support led to the creation of several notable extensions that enhanced Navigator’s functionality:
- Acrobat Amber – Released by Adobe Systems in early 1996, enabling streaming of pdf content
- Lightning Strike – Developed by Inifinet, offering real-time wavelet compression technology
- RealAudio Player
- MovieStar – Provided by Intelligence at Large, it allowed streaming of QuickTime videos prior to an official QuickTime plugin release
- Macromedia Shockwave Player
- Netcloak
Easter eggs
Several hidden features were embedded within Navigator. For instance, version 2 included verse 12:10 from The Book of Mozilla. Additionally, the "about:authors" page presented a quotation from Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, highlighting the inevitability of human decisions.
References
- Books