What’s New in Netscape Navigator 9?

The following features are new and unique to Netscape Navigator 9.

Visual Refresh

Netscape Navigator 9's theme has been updated to save screen-space and leave more room for the websites you visit.

URL Correction

Navigator 9 will automatically correct common typos in URLs. For example, if you accidentally type googlecom, Navigator will fix it be to google.com. The browser will watch for nearly 30 different types of common mistakes and correct them for you (asking you to confirm, if you choose to enable confirmation).

Link Pad

The Link Pad is a new sidebar feature that allows you to save links/URLs that you want to visit later without cluttering your bookmarks. Just drag a link over the Link Pad status bar icon and drop it to save it in the Link Pad. By default, clicking on an item in the Link Pad will open it in the browser and remove it from the list, saving you the step of deleting it.

Extension Compatibility

Navigator 9 shares an architecture with the latest Mozilla technologies; as such, Navigator 9 will let you install extensions that are compatible with Firefox ® 2.

Sidebar Mini Browser

You've always been able to have bookmarks open in the sidebar, but we've improved this functionality and extended it to all links, not just bookmarks. Additionally, we've added a navigation toolbar to the sidebar for even easier split-screened browsing. Just right-click on a link and select "Open Link in Sidebar" to get started!

Restart Navigator

A small but oft-requested feature: you can now restart Navigator (and keep your current tabs intact) by selecting "Restart Navigator" from the File menu.

Resizeable Textarea

Drag the bottom-right corners of text fields in forms to add more typing space.

Tab History

Opening a link in a new tab will give the new tab the same history as the source tab for a more seamless tabbed browsing experience.

OPML Support

Netscape Navigator supports importing and exporting your bookmarks in OPML, a popular format for sharing lists of newsfeeds.

Throbber

By popular demand, the Netscape 7-style throbber is back. Click on it any time to visit Netscape.com.

Combined Stop/Reload button

To save space in your toolbar, we've combined the stop and reload buttons. Because you never need both at the same time, the toolbar will only show the relevant half of the pair.

Since Navigator 9 is based on the newest Mozilla ® technologies, there are additional features in Navigator 9 that were not available in Netscape Browser 8.x. You can read about those new features in these release notes from Mozilla.