NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR HAS snared an estimated 70 percent of the Web-client market in the past year, but Netscape Communications isn't resting on its laurels. Netscape Navigator 2.0 ($49, free to users in education) adds a host of new features certain to please Web surfers.
Live Objects. Navigator 2.0's most exciting feature is its support for Live Objects -- the playing or displaying of multimedia items directly within Navigator. As we've already reported, Navigator 2.0 will be able to display Adobe Acrobat documents (New on the Menu, July '95, page 24), Macromedia Director files, and applications written in Sun Microsystems' Java language (New on the Menu, September '95, page 31). Just about any other media type imaginable can be supported from within Netscape via a plug-in; plug-ins for QuickTime and QuickTime VR, Novell's Envoy, Progressive Networks' RealAudio, SGML, VRML, and many others are expected to be available when Navigator 2.0 ships in early December.
Mail Reader. Navigator 1.0 worked as a Usenet news client, but version 2.0 goes it one better by working as a POP/SMTP e-mail client too. Although its initial feature set doesn't measure up to Qualcomm's Eudora or Claris Emailer, it does help Navigator seem like the ClarisWorks of the Internet.
Frame-Up. Other new features include Frames, which lets Navigator display multiple documents -- whether they're HTML, PDF, or some other format -- in one window; SmartMarks, bookmarks that alert you when the Web site they point to has been updated; hierarchic, threaded news reading; and improved security options, including support for digital signatures, which may eliminate the need for Web users to enter passwords to authenticate their identities. 415-528-2555.
