Netscape 6 is ready to take the power back

AOL subsidiary Netscape is hoping to claw back share of the browser market with Netscape 6, due for public release today.

Once the dominant browser supplier, with a 90 per cent market share, Netscape has seen its stake fall to around 20 per cent following fierce competition from Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Rewritten from scratch using Mozilla's Gecko browser engine, Netscape 6 is smaller, faster and more secure than previous versions. A full download is only 8.5MB, compared with 18MB for Netscape Communicator 4.7 and 29.4MB for Internet Explorer 5. Netscape is aiming the reborn browser primarily at small and medium sized businesses. In contrast with previous versions, Netscape 6 combines browser, mail client and instant message in a single integrated system. It runs on a range of platforms - including Linux, not supported by Internet Explorer. The browser can be personalised with 50 different themes, making it easy to adapt it to match a corporate identity. Other new features include password management and the ability to check multiple email accounts. By Candice Goodwin