Netscape, the browser that dominated the Web in the 1990s until Microsoft’s Internet Explorer took over, has faded into obscurity since it was acquired by America Online in 1998.
But AOL is hoping for a Netscape comeback. This week the company is circulating a prerelease version of an all-new edition of the storied browser, called Netscape 8.0. This new Netscape, which works only on Windows, sports some unusual features designed to help bolster security and compatibility on the Web.
I’ve been testing the new Netscape for a week or so, and consider it an interesting and potentially useful product. But it has some design drawbacks, and only time will tell how well it works.
Netscape 8.0 is based on Firefox, the open-source browser that lately has become a hot challenger to Internet Explorer. Like Firefox, and earlier versions of Netscape, the 8.0 version uses tabbed browsing, which allows multiple Web pages to be open in a single window, each identified by a tab.
But the new Netscape looks and works quite differently from Firefox. It adds two major new features. First, Netscape rates every Web site for trustworthiness. This includes whether the site is genuine, and not a fake created by crooks for so-called “phishing” schemes; and whether it can be trusted not to secretly load spyware or other malicious programs onto your PC.
Secondly, Netscape has the capability to render a Web page in two ways: as Firefox would present it or as Internet Explorer would. This is useful because some Web sites don’t work properly in Firefox and rely upon special features available only through Internet Explorer. With the new Netscape, you can see the Internet Explorer version of a page without launching Internet Explorer.
If a site is considered trustworthy, Netscape automatically renders it using the Internet Explorer method, for maximum compatibility. Internet Explorer’s method for rendering Web pages opens security vulnerabilities that Firefox’s doesn’t. Netscape figures that, at trusted sites, it’s OK to take that risk.
On the other hand, if Netscape isn’t sure about the trustworthiness of a site, it uses the Firefox method for rendering the pages, which is safer but might have compatibility issues.
If a site is believed to be dangerous, Netscape 8.0 puts up a special page with a huge warning that it’s a security risk. Users still can load the dangerous site, but at their own peril.
Netscape bases its trustworthiness ratings on “white lists” of good sites and “black lists” of bad sites compiled by others. At the moment, it is using only AOL’s lists, which are extensive. But it is negotiating with other list vendors. It expects the ratings to cover what it calls the top 1,000 sites on the Web.
In my tests, this system worked pretty well. Major Web sites I tried displayed a green shield symbol in their tabs, indicating they were trusted. Sites Netscape didn’t know about had a yellow shield. Several known spyware sites I tried generated the scary warning pages.
Users can turn off the trustworthiness rating system or they can override it, deciding on their own which sites to trust, and which they want to view via Firefox and which via Internet Explorer.
So what are the drawbacks? Well, the security system adds a layer of complexity to the browser. Users now have to pay attention to the colored shields, and they may get scared away from some good sites that just don’t happen to have been rated by Netscape. For instance, in my tests, two popular sites devoted to new gadgets, Gizmodo and Engadget, came up with yellow shields.
And, of course, the ratings are only as good as their authors. Digital criminals may be able to fool or outrun the compilers of the lists Netscape relies on, and thus attack users lulled into a false sense of security by the color shields. It might be safer to simply use Firefox regularly in order to avoid Internet Explorer’s vulnerabilities, launching Internet Explorer only in the few instances where sites absolutely require it.
Netscape 8.0 also has problems unrelated to its security features. I found its user interface dense and cluttered. The toolbars are packed with annoying boxes containing scrolling text, objects Netscape calls “widgets.” These display automatically updated news headlines and weather forecasts.
Adding to the clutter are built-in search boxes for shopping and yellow pages. Some of these things are built into the browser because AOL makes money when you click on them.
You can delete these irritating toolbar objects, but that takes effort. It would have been better if Netscape had followed the lead of Firefox, and of Apple Computer’s Safari browser, in presenting a clean, spare look.
Finally, I found the browser to be slow, and somewhat prone to crashes. This is probably due to its beta status, and it’s something AOL pledges to fix, along with some other problems, such as the fact that only eight tabs for Web pages can be visible at once, compared with dozens in Firefox.
Netscape 8.0 is a good idea, and it will be a boon for some users. But it needs work, and its real effectiveness won’t be known until it’s clear just how good its trust rankings are.
Walter Mossberg writes about personal technology for The Wall Street Journal.
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