Okay, let's work through some naming confusion for a second: These days Netscape is a pretty multi-faceted brand, but for the purposes of this post we're talking about just two of those facets: Netscape.com, the web site recently reborn as a social news site, and Netscape Browser, the web browser that you download, install on your computer, and use to browse web sites... like Netscape.com. Got it? Okay, hold on tight.Over at the official Netscape(.com) blog, developer Chris Finke has posted a teeny tiny teaser screenshot (above) of the upcoming Netscape (Browser) 9.0. Who cares about a new version of Netscape Browser anymore? Well, I do, but I may be a teensy bit (read: a lot) biased since I'm on Netscape.com's payroll as a Navigator. But, just as the Netscape.com team has pumped some pretty novel features into the social news site, they seem to be taking a similar approach to Netscape 9.0. Here's what Finke says about the new version: "Unlike Netscape 8, Netscape 9 will contain more standardized support for newsfeeds (a.k.a. Live Bookmarks); it will also have tight integration with the Netscape.com service, as evidenced by the icons for the two available Netscape.com extensions (Friends' Activity Sidebar and the Sitemail Notifier). Several Netscape.com-based extensions will be built into the browser; only these two have been previously announced."
If you already use Firefox and have installed the existing Netscape.com extensions, the above might not put you at the edge of your seat in anticipation, but Finke has promised new screenshots and progress reports every Tuesday until the browser's release.
