A peek at Netscape 9

Netscape 9 is in the works and should include a large number of improvements. Now, Netscape has definitely been outrun by IE, Firefox and even Opera, so we’re curious as to how the new version will attract users. According to the announcement, the web browser will “contain support for newsfeeds” and will handle Netscape.com extensions.

According to Kurt Cagle, chief architect for Netscape 9, the browser will also handle Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) support so we’re guessing there’ll be some sort of online map, (could an app like Google Maps be in the works?) or a good number of web apps included in the browser.

On his blog, Jason Calacanis, ex General Manager at Netscape, speculates that Netscape 9 will incorporate “social bookmarking, voting, commenting, friends activity”. Can we then expect something similar to Flock? What’s for sure is that the new Netscape 9 will focus on the user and appears to place a lot of importance on social tools.

Will Netscape 9 be a worthy rival for the dominant browsers? Does it believe that its new features will be sufficient to give it a significant share of the browser market? Let’s not forget that traffic to Netscape.com dropped significantly after the new redesign. Hopefully the new version will not scare away users. New announcements will be posted every Tuesday on the Netscape community site, giving us details on this new version of the venerable browser.