Browser firm NeoPlanet Inc. continued its efforts to advance the Mozilla open source project Thursday by announcing it will contribute to the production of
Mozilla’s Open Instant-Messaging and Chat initiative.
With OIMC, NeoPlanet aims to help create extensible software for enabling
various instant
messaging protocols to interact. When completed, the company plans to
incorporate OIMC into its namesake NeoPlanet alternative browser. Version
5.0, scheduled for launch in June, is expected to incorporate Mozilla’s
Gecko browsing engine as well.
NeoPlanet has a commitment to open source technology, and working with
Mozilla is a way to extend that commitment to NeoPlanet’s estimated 1.3
million users, said Drew Cohen, NeoPlanet’s president and chief executive officer.
“NeoPlanet feels that, like Web page rendering, instant messaging, ‘buddy
lists’ and chat need to be
open, interoperable features so that the entire community benefits,” Cohen said.
“NeoPlanet looks
forward to working with the Mozilla community to develop an interoperable
technology platform for chat
and instant messaging.”
It’s been a busy week for NeoPlanet, which earlier this week announced a
distribution partnership with Lycos Inc.
to offer Lycos’ portal services via NeoPlanet’s browser interface.