• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 2, 2008

Marking the end of an era, AOL has decided to retire the Netscape Web browser after nearly 14 years of operation. As a result, AOL has decided to throw its weight behind Mozilla's Firefox browser.

"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," AOL/Netscape development director Tom Drapeau said in a blog posting late last week.

AOL, which acquired Netscape for $4.2 billion in 1998, will maintain Netscape only as a general-use portal as of February 1.

Added Drapeau: "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 [reins] fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox."

In 1998, Netscape spun-out its code base into what would become Mozilla. In 2003, the Mozilla Foundation separated from Netscape and AOL, as a result of Microsoft's $750 million antitrust settlement with AOL.

Last summer, AOL supported the transition of Netscape from a professionally programmed portal to a social news site featuring news articles and blog posts submitted by users.