RSSNew 'Communicator' Threatens Netscape's Future
By Nate Mook | Published November 27, 2002, 7:45 AM
AOL this month debuted in beta form a standalone e-mail client bundled with a new version of AOL Instant Messenger and an address book, a package collectively dubbed AOL Communicator.
Code-named Photon, Communicator has been in development for close to two years, although AOL has made no decisions on how to market the product. But sources say a faction of the company is pushing for Communicator to succeed Netscape, which has all but disappeared from users' screens.
AOL began work on Photon after the release of Netscape 6 in November 2000 was met with harsh criticism. Netscape 6 was based on slow and unstable beta builds of Mozilla, the open source Web browser, and developers within AOL wished to make the mail and IM clients more appealing to experienced users.
Communicator utilizes the Gecko engine and XUL user interface language found in Mozilla, but it was developed entirely in-house and is not open source, according to AOL.
"Communicator is targeted to heavy users of AIM and advanced users of e-mail," AOL spokesperson Catherine Corre told BetaNews.
Instead of Web browsing, the focus of Communicator is to provide AOL users a unified e-mail and instant messaging experience, the company says. AOL Communicator Mail supports AOL, POP and IMAP e-mail accounts integrated into a single client. Automatic spam filtering has been added to weed out junk mail, an essential feature offered by rival service MSN.
Instant Messenger for AOL Communicator connects to both AIM and ICQ servers independently, but messaging across networks is not possible. AOL is currently testing interoperability between its two IM networks, but Corre declined to say when Communicator would feature such functionality.
AOL has enabled encrypted instant messaging for the first time with Communicator. Users can secure IM conversations using standard digital certificates in the same fashion used for e-mail.
Improving on the Netscape address book, IM buddies can be associated with stored contacts and given "Friendly Names" in Communicator. This integration allows the instant messenger client to notify a user when mail is received from a buddy, or send mail to an offline contact.
Despite their overlapping feature sets, AOL has developed Communicator independent of Netscape. But resurrecting the Communicator namesake -- Netscape's former moniker -- for the new product suite may not be coincidental. Initial plans plotted AOL Communicator as a potential substitute for Netscape, however the release of Netscape 7 in August ushered in a much improved browser suite built on the final version of Mozilla.
Sources at AOL tell BetaNews a rift has formed between those supporting the old Netscape brand and backers of Communicator as a Netscape replacement.
With the recent beta release, christened Milestone 10, AOL is evaluating consumer response to the software. "As with all beta tested products we collect feedback from users," Corre said. "Since it is still in its early stages, we cannot comment on any distribution or marketing strategies."
Shifting focus away from the Web browser has been a long expected transition for AOL's Netscape group.
Communicator enables AOL to focus on areas in which the company can better compete. Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer Web browser has left little room for alternatives and even AOL's 8.0 client continues to embed the Internet Explorer engine. Instead, AOL can take advantage of the lead it enjoys with instant messaging and the millions of users with AOL e-mail addresses.
With the software still in beta testing, AOL has left its options open for how to position Communicator.
Corre confirmed the XUL interface enables AOL to potentially build Communicator for Windows, Linux and Mac platforms. Communicator could also be pitted as a competitor to Microsoft's Outlook Express. However, if Netscape avoids its longstanding fate, the primary audience for Communicator may simply end up being AOL users looking for an alternative method to access their e-mail.
"A lot of these features would be useful to AOL customers," Corre said. "But it's too early to comment on a final outcome."
I really don't see the point of AOL communicator (which is on the AOL 'beta' keyword page). It's just a cutdown ripoff of the Netscape / Mozilla mail client UI but as far as I can see, it's been reimplemented in C++, not chrome! It definitely uses Gecko, but there is no extra chrome besides the standard embedding stuff meaning they recoded everything as a native UI. What the hell is the point of that??? And no it it isn't faster, in fact performance wise it seems about the same, except of course rewriting stuff in C++ means reinventing the wheel when they have a perfectly good chrome implemenation sitting there. Doesn't AOL want this thing to be easily cross platform - do they want the extra pain of maintaining C++ for every platform they wish to run it on? It seems like an utter waste of time to me. They could have shipped a version of Mozilla with a cutdown chrome and 95% would have already been done for them. They must be masochists.
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|The author doesn't appear to be knowlegable when he/she states that Netscape is threatened by new AOL Communicator. He/she appears not to know that Netscape Navigator is a web browser while AOL Communicator is an email client with better integration with IM. They do not compete, they actually complement each other. Both use the same unelying technology XUL for UI (user interface) and GECKO for HTML rendering (because a lot of email nowadays are in HTML format) Read http://www.extremetech.c...e2/0,3973,732211,00.asp for more information and an actual review with screenshots.
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|i think you missed the point of the article. it's pretty clear that communicator has no web browser (notice the reference to netscape saying it was moving away from a web browser). but if you have used recent versions of netscape you would know it is not just a web browser. netscape is a suite that includes an email client, address book, and the custom (and terrible) version of AIM. the issue here is that because the main focus is navigator, nobody uses it because IE comes with windows. if aol stops focusing on navigator it may get more converts who still want to use IE but want a better email and AIM client. the browser war is already lost, why should aol bother to push navigator when it hurts their other businesses? i know it may be a hard concept to understand for netscape fanatics but in the real world companies have to think logically.
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|Because AOL cannot allow MS, a main competitor in the ISP business, to have total control of the way web pages get displayed through the browser. Right now MS distributes an HTML control (IE) that AOL and many others embed in their applications in order to diplay html code. IF AOL wouldn't have a viable alternative, MS could easily start charging for the usage of IE of even worse, demand particular concessions from IE users like AOL and others that are not necessarilly in the best interests of non MS companies. AOL cannot afford to be held hostage of MS, a convicted monopolist that will do anything to destroy competitors.
As for the other of the article and your comment about Netscape moving away from the web browser market, they have clarified that comment several times. THE NEVER SAID that. What they said at one time was that Netscape was no longer going to be known as a "web browser comapany" meaning that they were not just in that line of business but in many others. DIVERSIFYING.
Netscape IM gets better with every release, last time I check they begain integrating IM and ICQ in one interface (rudimentary, but in the right direction). Netscape 7.01, that was already leaked by a mistake in the configuration of Nestcape's ftp servers will have a superior pop-up/pop-under configuration tool than the latest Mozilla 1.2.
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|The Mozilla engine uses some XUL to draw scrollbars and stuff but the actual communicator app doesn't appear to be written in xul at all. The commicator/chrome folder would be full of jar files if it was and it isn't. So communicator uses a tiny bit of xul, indirectly because Mozilla is there but otherwise the app is written in C++ or Delphi or something.
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|To clarify the comment about Netscape moving away from the web browser market, I believe this was in reference to the (then about to be launched) Netscape Network, which is the bar across the AOL TimeWarner websites (but notably not AOL.com)
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|I think the author has enough knowledge of what was talked about in the article. If you read it again, you will see what I mean. I don't want to waste anymore time in educating your lack of attention, but be cautious in the future before making such comments.
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|Except the article is wrong so the author needs to be taken to task.
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|Get avant browser. It's MSIE wearing an Opera jacket with tabs, popup blocker and image blocker. Opera is nice, but still lacked some power with MSIE. Avant has all I need. http://www.avantbrowser.com/
I love it!
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|just downloaded it...isn't this netscape mail plus?...not bad for a beta...just a suggestion...add the ability to save pictures into the address book...like the mac address book...
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|I think, that using Mozzila and Opera are better way. I see allot of people, who stacked with some kinds of adware and other windowses in explorer, which pop up each time, when then use IE. It's not so good
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|Nutscrape really shot itself in the foot when they released version 6 and up, they are very bloated and slow. What reason is there to use Nutscraper any more considering we have IE6 and Mozilla/Phoenix?
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|IE6 has spyware in it, not to mention the countless security holes that always pop up. Netscape at least is based off of Mozilla. Opera is another good browser.
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|If you are naive enough to believe there is spyware in IE6 then you must certainly think that the OS has much more spyware in it, so why are you worrying about browser spyware?
I'll take a few patches every once in a while since IE6 is such a better browser than anything else out there.
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|I used to think that Internet Explorer was better than everything else. That was until Mozilla 1.1 came out. I still use IE most of the time, mainly because of familiarity, but Mozilla is the better software. It is more standards compliant, has a pop-up blocker that works better than most 3rd party software, and renders pages quicker than IE. It is too bad that AOL has chosen the proprietary route instead of dropping Netscape and going with Mozilla.
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|I use both, I've yet to see Mozilla render a page "faster" than IE. And while Mozilla is technically more standards compliant it is not perfect and is still a little buggy at times. The reason a lot of people point out Mozilla rendering a page "faster" than IE is because of the difference in the how the page is rendered not by testing start and end times. Mozilla can be about half as slow as IE especially depending on whether or not the developer uses javascript and how that script is used (ie the innerhtml/createElement argument). I develop for both, I like both, I hate the arguments though.
Personally I hope AOL gets stuffed. Use something that they don't "own".
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|Talking about IE, I think M$ included Spyware at least from version 5. Want to see? just click in the menu Help, about and read the center of the windows. See "Based on Mosaic bla bla bla".
One of the statements read "Distributed under a licensing agreement with Spyglass, Inc."
I tried to see what "spyglass" company do. And I found a dead homepage and some really short description about them at http://www.realtime-info...e/players/Object40.html
The description seems to be extracted from the bull s*** generator but it really pissed me off when I readed "The company's technologies enable Web connectivity through highly scalable, embedded browsers and servers, and provide performance enhancements, content conversion and extraction through server-based solutions"
What they extract from IE with Server-based solutions?! puajj. We are too close to 1984 from George Orwell man!
Is widely know that Netscrap keeps logs and send to AOL every activity or download you do with their browser. So we can't trust them when they say that they'll provide encryption with their software. Or that they'll provide security. AOL wont provide security at all!
If you want top speed rendering pages try Opera 7.0b1b. That's FAST. And a lot more than Mozilla or IE. The problem with that is that it is the first beta of a redesigned engine. So, it HAS bugs and partial support for customization. But is the greatest engine browser I saw.
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|You need to do better research.
The Spyglass piece in Internet Explorer is called "Content Advisor"
It's the adult content blocking option.
When Microsoft was looking to add this capability to Internet Explorer, they chose to license "SurfWatch Content Filtering" from Spyglass rather than write their own.
But hey, why bother with facts? You're doing pretty good with your FUD rant based on nothing but wrong information and your paranoid delusions based on the company name.
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|Oh, it looks like the Spyglass disclaimer is actually there covering two agreements, not just one.
Spyglass is also the company that Microsoft first licensed Mosaic from back in 1995.
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|I approach the Netscape vs IE debate from a developers perspective. As a web application developer I generally have to write code that works with both browsers. Trying to write useful web applications that also work in Netscape generally requires mounds of kludgy code. I have nothing against the browser, I just don't like spending hours creating DHTML pages that take only minutes to create in IE.
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|Could you be specific as a "web developper" on what kludges you have to apply with Netscape ? The much marketing "DHTML" word is manipulating the DOM and the CSS properties with javascript. Netscape 7 has a better DOM support than IE, it has a (much) better CSS support and excellent Javascript support. So Could you explain us how you happen to require Kludgy Code for a browser supporting more (and better) standards than IE ?
Just curious...
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|RedBadger, please post links to where you found this info.
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|paranoid? He has good reason to be! maybe you should read this
http://www.hevanet.com/peace/microsoft.htm
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|You have NO clue what you're talking about. Spyglass has NOTHING to do with spyware. One of the very first graphical web browsers was Mosaic, which was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). One of the developers of Mosaic at NCSA was Marc Andreessen...who left NCSA and started Netscape. Netscape was based on Mosaic until the Mozilla project came along. Spyglass was around WAY before anyone even heard of the word spyware. Spyglass was a company that made their own web browser which was also based on the Mosaic code. When Windows 95 came out Microsoft wanted to get in on the Internet bandwagon, so they bought the web browser from Spyglass and renamed it Internet Explorer. Kinda like what they did with DOS. They bought Q-DOS from a little computer shop and renamed it MS-DOS. Before the Mozilla project, Netscape and Internet Explorer were both based on the same basic code...Mosaic.
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|Isn't it obvious? Complaints like this are always down to one of two reasons:
1. They are really talking about Netscape 4 which used its own, mostly incompatable, DHTML & DOM (the Layer tag etc).
2. They are used to the tricks that are needed to make IE work and may even think some trick they use is the right way. 9 times out of 10, when I find something works differently in IE and Mozilla and I check the specs, Mozilla is doing it correctly (although this is sometimes counter-inituitive, such as the image display: block thing).
Ian
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|I'm sticking with Netscape 7. I can access my Netscape mail much easier. The messenger isn't as nice but it works. Plus Netscape has a browser. I am very disappointed in the communicator. I expected a netscape-like program and it doesn't even look as nice. Anyway I recommend Netscape 7.0, it works and it rocks.
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|This is on the aol beta page. In aol, keyword beta.
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|Now all that I get when I go to beta is the AOL GM Refresh. Could someone tell me how else to get this because i want to stop using AOL itself
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|Im an AOL beta tester but does anyone know when or where this will be available? This could be the thing AOL needs to allow it to gain the respect of people who consider it massive childish bloatware.
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|It's there under AOL Communicator in the Windows tests section. Has a "new" icon next to it.
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|Oh... all the horror... hopefully netscape and AIM will remain free!
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|MyIE2. Period.
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