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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Netscape Navigator 9.0 Available

Netscape announced the immediate availability of the official release of Netscape Navigator 9. The release is available for download from browser.netscape.com.

The following changes have been made since Release Candidate 1:
  • Added security measures when installing extensions from the sidebar browser
  • Fixed error that was displayed after updating (with auto-update) from 9.0b3 to 9.0RC1
The following features are new and unique to Netscape Navigator 9.

Visual Refresh : Netscape Navigator 9's theme has been updated to save screen-space and leave more room for the websites you visit.

URL Correction : Navigator 9 will automatically correct common typos in URLs. For example, if you accidentally type googlecom, Navigator will fix it be to google.com. The browser will watch for nearly 30 different types of common mistakes and correct them for you (asking you to confirm, if you choose to enable confirmation).

Link Pad : The Link Pad is a new sidebar feature that allows you to save links/URLs that you want to visit later without cluttering your bookmarks. Just drag a link over the Link Pad status bar icon and drop it to save it in the Link Pad. By default, clicking on an item in the Link Pad will open it in the browser and remove it from the list, saving you the step of deleting it.

Extension Compatibility : Navigator 9 shares an architecture with the latest Mozilla technologies; as such, Navigator 9 will let you install extensions that are compatible with Firefox ® 2.

Sidebar Mini Browser : You've always been able to have bookmarks open in the sidebar, but we've improved this functionality and extended it to all links, not just bookmarks. Additionally, we've added a navigation toolbar to the sidebar for even easier split-screened browsing. Just right-click on a link and select "Open Link in Sidebar" to get started!

Restart Netcape : A smalll but oft-requested feature: you can now restart Navigator (and keep your current tabs intact) by selecting "Restart Navigator" from the File menu.

Resizeable Textarea : Drag the bottom-right corners of text fields in forms to add more typing space.

Tab History : Opening a link in a new tab will give the new tab the same history as the source tab for a more seamless tabbed browsing experience.

OPML Support : Netscape Navigator supports importing and exporting your bookmarks in OPML, a popular format for sharing lists of newsfeeds.

Throbber : By popular demand, the Netscape 7-style throbber is back.

Combined Stop/Reload button : To save space in your toolbar, we've combined the stop and reload buttons. Because you never need both at the same time, the toolbar will only show the relevant half of the pair.

Since Navigator 9 is based on the newest Mozilla ® technologies, there are additional features in Navigator 9 that were not available in Netscape Browser 8.x. You can read about those new features in these release notes from Mozilla.

Netscape Navigator 9 is available as a standalone installation for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The automatic update feature in your current Netscape browser will not upgrade to 9.0.

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