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© 1999-2000 by Alex Grubb
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The browser wars are over right? Internet Explorer won, right? Well, according to an article on CNET.com, Netscape has other plans. Despite Mozilla.org's valiant efforts with the open-source project for Netscape 5.0, Netscape already has a version 6.0 of the once popular browser. It has been previewed by Wall Street along with the new AOL TV, to compete with Microsoft's WebTV. Is this a strategic move for Netscape? Should they just give it up? Even though all webmasters would love it if they did, that's just not going to happen. But, since Netscape is coming back, better and stronger than ever, here's a few things that us webmasters hope that Netscape has taken into consideration. First of all, follow HTML 4.0 and all other standards set by the W3C, more closely. In your 4.7 version, it still has a hard time rendering tables correctly, and webmasters must spend considerable time making their site "Netscape proof". Come on. Just do it. Another nice feature would be to dynamically render pages like IE 5.0 does. It doesn't wait for the whole page to load before rendering, which increases load time considerably. If you make 6.0 render pages faster you'll definitely find good terms with me! (Actually, I'm mad at IE 5.5 Beta because it just stops, literally stops, loading a page before it's finished. I usually see at the very end of the page, the tag that IE was just about to load. If you can outdo IE in this respect, by all means, do! I'll happily and gladly switch right over!) To get back to the subject, can you make the download any more bloated? I mean come on. 12MB isn't a lot, but what about those of us who have a slow connection? If you don't, I'll have to leave my net connection on all night waiting for your download to finish. Please, please make it under 10MB at most. You could also make Navigator stand alone again. Not all of us want your little composer or your mail reader. If you can make your mail reader better than Outlook Express, I will gladly switch over to that as well. Dratted Hotmail! I really do need to get rid of that account... So, if you can live up to all of this, and more, you'll certainly win big with webmasters. If load times increase, you'll also make plain Joe happier too. In 6 words: Let us work smarter, not harder. Talk back: Visit My Forum! |