In its heyday, Netscape employed more than 2,500 staffers. Back in 2000, Netscape probably had about 900 staffers. Up until today, the current Netscape had about 500 staffers, now down to 450 with the announcement that 10% of the workforce has been laid off, and that the company only planned to continue to support current versions of the Netscape browser and the Netscape Web portal.
Since the Netscape web site team has been part of the AOL “Web Properties” group since 2001, it’s probably safe to speculate that the so-called Netscape staff is made up of technology and marketing staffers focused on Netscape-specific applications, from the browser, to mail, to the sidebar, to Netscape search. While all these technologies have been based on an AOL back end since 2000, there was continued development for the browser-based versions.
Now, AOL’s relationship to Netscape seems similar of the US government’s to the old and expired satellites floating around our galaxy, lost in space. Drifting, unmoored, the browser is there for those who want to use it, but the days of development and integration are gone. From now on, the open source baton has passed to the non-profit geeks at Mozilla, who will take all responsibility for any next-gen browsers, ensuring that no new development will feed back into Netscape.
RIP, Netscape.com, you were a great place to work and a life-changer for many people.
Bonus: Blogzilla on the layoffs
In its heyday, Netscape employed more than 2,500 staffers. Back in 2000, Netscape probably had about 900 staffers. Up until today, the current Netscape had about 500 staffers, now down to 450 with the announcement that 10% of the workforce has been laid off, and that the company only planned to continue to support current versions of the Netscape browser and the Netscape Web portal.
Since the Netscape web site team has been part of the AOL “Web Properties” group since 2001, it’s probably safe to speculate that the so-called Netscape staff is made up of technology and marketing staffers focused on Netscape-specific applications, from the browser, to mail, to the sidebar, to Netscape search. While all these technologies have been based on an AOL back end since 2000, there was continued development for the browser-based versions.
Now, AOL’s relationship to Netscape seems similar of the US government’s to the old and expired satellites floating around our galaxy, lost in space. Drifting, unmoored, the browser is there for those who want to use it, but the days of development and integration are gone. From now on, the open source baton has passed to the non-profit geeks at Mozilla, who will take all responsibility for any next-gen browsers, ensuring that no new development will feed back into Netscape.
RIP, Netscape.com, you were a great place to work and a life-changer for many people.
Bonus: Blogzilla on the layoffs