The browser that helped kick-start the commercial Web is to cease development because of lack of users. <A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7163547.stm">Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008,</A> the company has said.

In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%. In particular, the browser has faced competition from Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), which is now used by nearly 80% of all web users.