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Builder.com: AOL’s Browser Strategy: Crazy Like a Fox

“In December 1999, it was widely rumored and expected that
Netscape would release the final developer version of its new
Mozilla technology at the most recent Builder.com Live! event,
again in The Big Easy…”

“Alas, ’twas not to be. A few weeks before the conference, word
began to spread that AOL, which had acquired Netscape, was delaying
the release of the new browser to allow the incorporation of
proprietary new features that the company promised would be in
great demand by end users.”

“… we can now see the browser landscape pretty clearly.
AOLScrape will
be quite content, thank you very much, to
foist off the Netscape browser with its proprietary whistles on
the tens of millions of captive users it has
–users who will
meekly and mildly swallow whatever crappy browser AOL shoves down
their collective throats, regardless of its quality or Web
friendliness.”

“Microsoft, in turn, will be quite happy to own the rest of the
browser world with its Internet Explorer.”

Complete
story
.

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