Netscape Navigator 2 is a discontinued proprietary web browser released by Netscape Communications Corporation as its flagship product. Versions were available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux, IRIX, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, SunOS, JavaOS, and FreeBSD.
The browser introduced and improved several features and also added proprietary extensions to the HTML standard. Notably, Netscape 2 was the first browser to support JavaScript and animated GIFs, two technologies still predominant on the web today.
Features The browser introduced many new or improved features:
Support for progressive JPEGs (previous versions supported only the baseline format)Shafer, p. 5 Support for GIF89a (previous versions supported only GIF87a) Support for client-side image maps (previous versions supported only server-side image maps)Shafer, pp. 4-5 Support for plugins (previous versions supported only helper applications)Shafer, pp.5-6 Improved bookmark organization Added support for FTP uploadingShafer, p. 6 Added support for JavaScript (initially marketed as LiveScript in 2.0b1 and 2.0b2) Added OLE supportShafer, p. 7 Added support for HTML frames Introduced Netscape Mail and Netscape News, an e-mail client and Usenet News reader, respectivelyShafer, p. 10
Netscape Now
To promote Netscape Navigator, Netscape developed the "Netscape Now" program. The program promoted the display of the "Netscape Now! 2.0" web badge on websites with newly supported features, including frames, live objects, Java applets, and JavaScript.
Popular plugins The support for plugins led to the development of several popular plugins to extend Navigator's functionality.
Acrobat Amber - Released in early 1996 by Adobe Systems, it allowed for a pdf to be streamed.Shafer, pp. 71-72 Lightning Strike - Released by Inifinet, it offered non-standard real-time wavelet compressionShafer, pp. 72-73 RealAudio PlayerShafer, pp. 75-79 MovieStar - Released by Intelligence at Large, it offered streaming of QuickTime videos (as there wasn't a QuickTime plugin yet)Shafer, pp. 74-75 Macromedia Shockwave PlayerShafer, pp. 79-82 NetcloakShafer, p. 197
Easter eggs Netscape had several easter eggs. Navigator 2 featured verse 12:10 from The Book of Mozilla.
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References
Books
External links Netscape Navigator 2.0 in Web Design Museum Netscape Navigator 2 Plugins Netscape Navigator 2 Download