Netscape Founder Says Web Browsing Innovation Dead[/u]
Tue July 01, 2003 12:15 PM ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Marc Andreessen, co-creator of the pioneering Web browser Mosaic, said he laments that innovation has all but ceased on this essential piece of software that makes surfing the Net possible.
"There hasn't been any innovation on the browser in the last five years. And five years from now there won't be any changes," Andreessen told Reuters on Tuesday.
"Navigation is an embarrassment. Using bookmarks and back and forth buttons -- we had about eighteen different things we had in mind for the browser."
Andreessen was in London on Tuesday to speak at an industry event and announce that his company Opsware OPSW.O , a firm that handles data-center management for corporations and government agencies, was expanding into Britain.
This summer marks the tenth anniversary of Mosaic, the first Web browser to combine pictures and text in the same window. Its introduction helped turned the Internet from a geeky backwater for academics and scientists into a global mass market medium.
BRAINS BEHIND NETSCAPE
In 1994, Andreessen, at 24, joined Silicon Valley legend Jim Clark to start Netscape, developers of the faster, slicker Netscape Navigator Web browser that quickly became the de-facto browser for corporate and consumer Net users.
The following summer, Netscape went public on Nasdaq, opening at $71 per share, an unprecedented debut that later would be topped by a string of dot-coms during the Internet bull market of the late 1990s.
In 1998, America Online -- now part of media conglomerate AOL Time Warner AOL.N -- bought Netscape, a move to bring in a well-financed partner to fight off Microsoft's MSFT.O Internet Explorer.
Microsoft ultimately won the war as Microsoft's IE is now used by more than 90 percent of the Web surfing population.
Andreessen, who is no longer connected with Netscape, said it appears Netscape's demise is "a certainty."
In May, AOL Time Warner announced it would use IE as part of a broader $750 million settlement of an antitrust dispute between the media giant and Microsoft.
Asked about Netscape's future following the May announcement, AOL Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons responded: "We're still exploring the opportunities with Netscape."
The company said its plans for Netscape has not changed. Earlier this week, AOL launched an updated version of the browser, Netscape Navigator 7.1.
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