Tom just posted the official announcement: As of February 1, 2008, Netscape will no longer exist as a product-producing entity.

"AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be. Given AOL's current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reigns fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox."

This means end-of-life for all Netscape desktop applications, including Navigator and Messenger. (The Netscape.com portal will still exist as a co-branded AOL service.)

Hindsight being 20/20, AOL should have made this kind of announcement immediately after the Mozilla foundation was established, rather than pitting Netscape against its former self. This is not to say that I didn't immensely enjoy working on Navigator and Messenger, but I think we can agree that with AOL's massive Web presence, a little support (and advertising) from them might have meant that Internet Explorer might be trying to dethrone Mozilla as the market leader, rather than the other way around.

Some of may already know this, but I am no longer with Netscape (voluntarily, no hard feelings there). I felt that it was the right time to move on to something else, and in late November, I did so.

I'm now working for Mahalo, mainly on Mahalo Follow/Social. If you're up for it, you can add me as a friend on Mahalo so that I don't feel so hopelessly alone.

Tom announced last night the rebranding of Netscape (the social news site) on the Netscape blog, and of course, Valleywag TechCrunch got it all wrong (and even stopped by to gloat).

I'm telling you, if TechCrunch was an entertainment blog, they would have reported Prince's name change as a murder.

Today is the one-year anniversary of my first day at AOL/Netscape.

More importantly, I've also been blogging for a little over a year. This means that I can start taking the lazy way out and post Lifehacker-esque "Retro Roundup: One Year Ago on Now I Have a Blog Too" entries.

What did I blog about one year ago today? Nothing. I must have been busy with something else...

Hey, didja hear that Techcrunch may be shut down due to poor traffic and insufficient ad revenue? My sources say that Mike Arrington is totally freaked out about it.

I heard about it from some guy that my cousin once met at a bar. After all, who needs legitimate sources when you can just make half-assed predictions about companies you don't like?

AOL News has undergone a redesign to be more "bloggy" (according to Reuters). Part of this update is that now they're featuring the top stories at Netscape.com under the "User Submitted News" in the left-hand sidebar.

I wouldn't mind that section being a little higher up on the page though, maybe replacing any of the nine (yes, nine) links to stories about Paris Hilton being released from prison...

C.K. Sample III describes the last two years of working in various start-up environments inside and outside of AOL. I found this part especially interesting:

Aside: I must take a moment here to implore everyone at AOL: release the new Netscape Browser. I’ve played with early versions of it and it’s great. The best browser out there. You will reap great rewards and good faith from the Internet community if you would simply release the bugger. The people who used to be my team worked hard on that thing and they deserve to see it released. It’s Firefox, but better.

Amen.

Netscape's OpenID support is live. This release also greatly simplifies the signup process by removing the captcha and the request for other information that was previously required for registration.