Netscape Launches Groundbreaking Netscape 6 Browser

Netscape "Breaks the Mold" by Giving Consumers a New Choice, With Unmatched Convenience, Ability to Stay Connected to Important Information, Flexibility to Fit Individual Needs, and New Features for Privacy and Security

Netscape 6, Powered by the Netscape Gecko Browser Engine, Provides Compelling Web Experience Across Multiple Platforms

Aggressive Global Launch to Build on Worldwide Popularity of Netscape Brand

Mountain View, Calif., November 14, 2000 - Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), today announced the worldwide launch of its next-generation Netscape 6 browser, offering consumers a new choice, with unmatched convenience, the ability to stay connected to important information and unprecedented flexibility to shape their online experience to fit the ways they live, work, and communicate.

Netscape ® 6 "breaks the mold" by letting consumers choose how they use the Internet throughout their daily lives. Rewritten from the ground up in an open source environment, it is a completely new browser with significant enhancements to Netscape's popular Internet suite of applications, including Netscape Navigator, Netscape Mail, Netscape Instant Messenger powered by AOL Instant Messenger, and Netscape Composer, as well as an array of new features and innovations. The streamlined new look also makes it faster, easier and more convenient to find and use the features and services consumers rely on most.

Netscape 6 lets users continually keep track of important information-like their personal calendar, Buddy Lists, stock quotes and sports scores-by choosing from among hundreds of customized tabs in My Sidebar. Users also can personalize the look-and-feel of the browser to fit their individual styles by selecting from multiple "Themes" built by both Netscape and third parties.

In addition, consumers and business professionals can check multiple e-mail accounts, send and receive instant messages between family, friends and business associates, and even update their calendar right from My Sidebar. They can also save time and effort by searching for words, phrases and web addresses in the web address field from within the browser.

Plus, Netscape 6 sets the bar for privacy and security online. In addition to privacy control features such as the Cookie Manager and the Password Manager, Netscape 6 was designed at every step to provide users the tools and flexibility to guard the integrity of their online experience.

Netscape 6 is powered by the small, fast, embeddable Netscape Gecko browser engine, that leads the industry in standards compliance, and can run across a wide variety of platforms - from traditional PCs to workstations to a broad range of new consumer devices, including the new "Instant AOL" Gateway household Internet appliance launched last week. Netscape 6 is available today on Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

Netscape also has reduced the size of the browser software to make it smaller, faster and easier to download than competing browsers, and has set up the installer to allow users to choose only those components they want before they actually download them.

For the first time, localized versions of Netscape 6 are being launched in the UK, France, Germany and Japan on the same day as in the US, providing international users with a browser and online environment tailored to their local region.

The launch of Netscape 6 is the focal point of a major marketing campaign with leading Internet Service Providers, media companies, computing manufacturers, and other partners to distribute the browser software to millions of consumers and professionals worldwide.

Jim Martin, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Netscape, said: "The one thing we hear over and over from Internet users is that they want real choice. They don't want to be limited to just one browser. With Netscape 6, we broke the mold by creating a brand new browser that lets consumers choose how they use the Internet. They can put the content they care about most right up front; customize features to suit their individual needs; and even change the look-and-feel of the browser to reflect their interests and lifestyles."

Mr. Martin added: "In designing Netscape 6, we looked very carefully at how consumers and professionals use the Internet in their everyday lives. And we worked very closely with the development community to build a new browser based on the standards-compliant, innovative, open source Gecko technology that enables users to fully experience the Internet in ways never possible before. Netscape 6 enables an expanding array of rich content and applications across multiple platforms and a wide range of computing devices, building the foundation for the next Internet revolution."

My Sidebar: Keeping Users Connected To What's Important

Located on the left side of the Netscape 6 interface, My Sidebar gives users a convenient personal space to stay connected to what is most important to them. Whether browsing in Netscape Navigator, reading e-mail in Netscape Mail or checking their Buddy Lists, they can keep track of the information, people and services that they use the most, right at their fingertips. Users can also read the latest news, set up custom stock portfolios, listen to music and more, simply by choosing from among more than 600 different tabs from Netscape and industry-leading third parties such as CNN, Reuters News, Red Herring, The Weather Channel and eBay. Tabs can also be tailored to fit individual needs. And My Sidebar automatically refreshes itself throughout the day, so users know they are getting up-to-date information.

Powerful, Integrated Search - Faster, Easier and More Effective

Netscape Navigator now includes a search field in the main toolbar. That means that at any time, from anywhere on the Web, users can type what they want and click "Search" - they no longer have to take the time to load a special search page. Search results are opened in My Sidebar, allowing users the flexibility to check multiple results without time consuming return trips to a search engine. The search field also doubles as the web address field. So whether the user has a web address, an Internet keyword or a word or phrase to search for, they can enter it in the search field and get what they want quickly.

The search functionality in Netscape 6 defaults to the Netscape Search service, which is powered by the Netscape Open Directory Project - the #1 search directory - and Google - the #1 search engine. Users can, however, customize search with a choice of search services or by using several search engines at once.

Managing All Internet Communications in One Convenient Place

Netscape 6 also seamlessly combines browsing, e-mail and instant messaging in a single, integrated environment. That means there is no longer the need to load separate applications for each communication task, because consumers and business professionals can conveniently manage all of their Internet communications from one place, with support for multiple accounts, including Netscape WebMail, AOL mail, other personal and business e-mail accounts, Internet newsgroups and instant messaging.

Adding New Themes To Netscape 6

With Themes, users can deeply customize the look of Netscape 6 by selecting a style and appearance for their browser that matches their personality. Users can pick the "classic" theme similar to the familiar Netscape Communicator interface, or switch, with the click of button, to a new "modern" theme that Netscape ships as the default look. Or they can choose from a growing number of new themes that developers and companies are creating to best suit different customer needs which will be available from the new "Theme Park" site at Netscape.com.

Netscape today announced the winners of its international Netscape 6 "Themes Contest". The contest, which continues the Company's long tradition of promoting creativity and innovation in the Internet community, gave businesses, professional designers and Web enthusiasts the opportunity to design original, custom browsing experiences. The grand prize winning theme is Sky Pilot, which is available in the Theme Park (http://www.netscape.com/themes ) today. Additional winners will be added to the new "Theme Park" that continues to grow and bring users added value and customization options.

Setting The Bar for Personal Privacy And Security

To give users greater privacy and security online, Netscape 6 offers three new and enhanced features:

** Netscape 6 Password Manager remembers all login names and passwords at various sites, and if desired, automatically fills them in on future visits. Users have complete control over which login names and passwords they want the Password Manager to remember.

** Netscape 6 Forms Manager makes it easier for users to register online by letting them automatically pre-fill Web site forms with only the personal information they want to make available.

** Netscape 6 Cookie Manager lets users conveniently view every cookie placed on their hard drive, and remove those they don't want. This gives consumers the ability to allow cookies from Web sites they trust, enhancing their use of those sites, while blocking others with which they are less familiar.

Only Netscape 6 gives users such easy and powerful control over their personal privacy and security.

The Best Standards Support

Netscape 6 is built on the Netscape Gecko browser engine, developed as an open source project. Because it supports more web standards more deeply and more consistently across platforms than any competing browser, it introduces a new generation of rich Web applications and content. Smaller, faster and easier to download than competing browsers-even over a modem-Netscape 6 ensures that only those portions of the product users choose to install are actually downloaded - so they never download software they don't need. And installation capabilities are built right into Netscape 6, enabling users to install updates directly from the Web.

A Great Tool For Professional And Business Users

Netscape 6 is also an ideal solution for users in small to medium sized businesses. Features like multiple accounts in Mail, e-mail address collection and integrated instant messaging give small business users the best and easiest messaging solution available.

Because of its industry leading standards support, the Netscape 6 browser enables enterprises to deliver a new class of Web applications over their Intranets and the Internet. These applications are lightweight, can be targeted directly at the needs of enterprise users, and can be centrally managed by updating the application on the server. Netscape 6 delivers all this functionality consistently across Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, which is critically important in enterprises with heterogeneous computing environments. When the enterprise help desk gets a call from a Netscape 6 user, they know that the user experience is the same regardless of the user's OS platform, which makes it much easier to help the user. Such consistency reduces enterprise training costs.

Aggressive Global Launch

Building on its already solid foundation in global markets -- with 17 international websites and a solid worldwide user base -- Netscape is simultaneously launching its groundbreaking browser in the UK, France, Germany and Japan, as well as in the US. With localizations in French, German and Japanese, Netscape is offering international users customized features and services, including an extensive list of local My Sidebar tabs for each country. And Netscape 6 provides automatic translation of Web pages via Alis Technologies' Gist-In-Time(tm) online language-comprehension solution in addition to giving users the ability to easily and quickly switch the browser's language interfaces, buttons, menus and regional settings through the browser's Language/Region Selector.

Netscape currently ships Netscape 6 in English, Japanese, French and German. In the U.S., versions are available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. In other countries, Netscape 6 will initially be available for Windows, with support for other platforms to be introduced in the next sixty days. In response to the growing demands of global customers, Netscape and Sun Microsystems have collaborated to expand the number of Netscape 6 language offerings. In the coming months, Netscape and Sun will deliver Netscape 6 in Italian, Swedish, Spanish, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese and Korean for the Solaris and Windows platforms.

Major Marketing Initiatives

Starting today, Netscape is launching an exciting new promotion called the Netscape "6stakes," to encourage consumers to adopt Netscape 6 through the download process, or by ordering a CD. More than 1,000 prizes are being awarded, including a 6-figure grand prize of $100,000. Participants also can win separate 6-day vacations to Hawaii, the Caribbean and one of the nation's top golf resorts, along with 6 weeks of flowers, 6 magazine subscriptions, including Time, Money, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, InStyle and Cooking Light, and 6 music CDs. Among the promotion's sponsors are Travelocity.com and Time Inc. Online and offline initiatives include online advertising with partners like PC World and CBS MarketWatch.com, a radio campaign in key markets, and a print campaign in select Time Inc. magazines.

Consumers can order a Netscape 6 CD online at Netscape.com, or download it from http://www.netscape.com/download. Nearly 4 million people have already downloaded the preview versions of Netscape 6.

Netscape also announced deals with Primedia to feature print advertising across its multiple publications. In addition, CNET Download.com (http://www.download.com ), the leading channel for electronic software distribution on the Internet, and ZDNet Download (http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/ ), the authoritative source of free, editorially reviewed, rated, and tested software downloads, together create a leading online software distribution vehicle for the Netscape 6 browser.

In addition, Netscape is launching major marketing initiatives with leading ISPs, computer manufacturers and Web companies to distribute Netscape 6 browser software. Service providers -- such as EarthLink and Sympatico-Lycos -- will incorporate Netscape 6 in their product CDs, and Fujitsu PC Corporation will distribute the browser pre-installed in its future notebook line-up in 2001. At the same time, Sun Microsystems will port Netscape 6 to the Solaris platform and make Netscape 6 available to its Solaris customers as a web download, and packaged with SPARC and Intel workstations.

Netscape 6 will be distributed via CD through various channels, including PC World magazine and media partner Time Inc. and its Time, Money, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, People and Fortune magazines. In addition, Covad Communications (Nasdaq: COVD) will include the browser as part of it its Virtual Broadband Service Provider (VBSP) offering.

Netscape is also distributing the browser through its successful Browser Distribution Program and Affiliate Distribution Program, which enable companies and other institutions to distribute customized versions of the Netscape browser for free. To date, more than 95 thousand companies have signed on to this program.

Best of Breed Enhancements

Netscape 6 also incorporates additional features from industry-leading providers of interactive technologies to bring added value and convenience to Internet users, including:

** Full support for the latest version of the Java 2, Platform Standard Edition from Sun Microsystems. On MacOS, Netscape 6 integrates with Apple's MRJ (MacOS Runtime Java).

** Net2Phone, by Net2Phone, Inc., that allows users to inexpensively place domestic and international calls to any telephone in the world by using their computer;

** Macromedia Flash, a browser plug-in that gives users a more engaging experience on the many sites that use Flash technology;

** RealPlayer®, the world's most popular streaming media player from RealNetworks®, Inc, which enables consumers to experience the best audio and video on the Internet with their Netscape 6 browser, and;

** An integrated Print Plus menu offers links to various printing services provided by Netscape and Hewlett Packard.

Netscape 6 Availability

Netscape 6 is available for download free of charge on Netscape.com today at http://home.netscape.com

About Netscape
Netscape Communications is a leading provider of open software and services that link people and information over the Internet. Netscape pioneered the development of world-class Web browsers, including Netscape Navigator and the new Netscape 6. Netscape.com is one of the most visited sites on the Internet during daytime hours with over 34 million registrants who have access to smart tools and services that empower users to take charge of their Internet experience. A subsidiary of America Online, Inc., Netscape is based in Mountain View, California. Additional information on Netscape is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com, or by calling 650-254-1900.

Netscape and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks of Netscape Communication Corporation in the United States and other countries.