Netscape 9. *yawn*
So, I opened up the latest Web Standards Group email that provides some good links for the week. In there was a link to Netscape 9.
Whoa, there’s a blast from the past. So, being a sucker for any browser whatsoever, I downloaded it. I opened it up. And yawned.
To quote my brother, “so who did all this work for no money and when it wasn’t needed?” So, let me get this straight. This is Firefox, with a different toolbar, no plug-ins, and a feature to “share” sites on Netscape.com? What even IS Netscape.com? Shouldn’t there be a feature to share with other sites as well? Or do you really want to limit your market to Firefox users that want one click integration with Netscape.com? What’s that… four people?
What is different about this? Camino at least is Firefox with the true Mac OS X aqua interface. What does Netscape give us to differentiate it? The retro feeling you get for using Netscape? Pretty green buttons? A share button that has minimal functionality that looks so out of place that I suspect someone’s kid added it with MS Paint?
And the search box. It defaults to searching Netscape. I’m sorry, raise your hand if you thought Netscape was still a search engine.
So, you released a browser with the sole purpose of being a marketing tool towards Netscape.com and the Netscape search engine. Wow. How much can I seriously NOT CARE?
Yawn.