Netscape Browser
internet browser
Netscape Browser (or Netscape 8) is the eighth major release of the Netscape series of web browsers, now all discontinued. It was published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications, and originally released for Windows on May 19, 2005.
Netscape Browser was the first browser of the Netscape series to be based on Mozilla Firefox, as opposed to Netscape versions 6 and 7, which were based on Mozilla Application Suite. Also, Netscape 6 and 7 were Internet suites whereas Netscape Browser (version 8) was solely a web browser.
As with other recent versions, it incorporates support for AOL Instant Messenger and other AOL-related features.
Netscape Browser was succeeded by Netscape Navigator 9, which reverted to the Navigator name.
Release history and milestones
The browser was released on May 19, 2005. A minor update known as version 8.0.1 was released a few hours later to incorporate the key security patches added in Firefox 1.0.4.
Features
A noteworthy feature introduced in Netscape Browser is the ability to use either of two layout engines to render websites — either Internet Explorer 6's Trident layout engine or the Gecko engine used by Mozilla and its derivatives. This is used as part of the browser's "Site Controls" system, which allows security settings to be altered on a per-site basis, and is also touted as a defense against phishing and similar attacks, with both blacklists and whitelists built in and automatically updated regularly.
The public source identifies “Netscape Browser” as internet browser. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Netscape, Browser and internet.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q904815. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Netscape Browser” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.