Netscape’s acquisition by America Online Inc. last year did not hamper
its growth, as the company Tuesday reported 25 million members to its
Netcenter portal and offered browser fans information on the anxiously
awaited release of its new browser.
Netcenter increased its membership from 10 million in January 1999 to 25
million. The company’s portal provides community tools such as a search
engine, informational content, chat, e-mail and download tools. The site was
redesigned in December, which the firm said helped to boost membership. Also
helping to boost membership has been the integration of some of America
Online’s (AOL)
21 million members. AOL bought Netscape last November.
Measurement firm Media Metrix
recently reported that Netcenter is one of the five most visited sites from
work, and as a result the company has focused the site to reflect business
visitors.
Netscape also announced Tuesday that the application that helped introduce
the world to the World Wide Web is about to get a new look. A beta version
of Netscape’s new Internet browser suite — powered by Netscape Gecko — is
scheduled to be available to the public for download within the next 60
days.
“Netscape is on the move,” said Jim Martin, senior vice president and
general manager of Netscape Netcenter. “These new metrics demonstrate the
continued excitement over Netscape since it joined the AOL family and
foreshadow the even greater success we expect in the future.”
“With the beta of our new browser available within 60 days and other
exciting developments in the pipeline, we are energized to build on
this momentum.”