Strength of rivals Internet Explorer and Firefox takes its toll on AOL-owned browser

Following years of decrease in market share, the end has finally come for web browser Netscape Navigator .

Since its launch in 1994, other browser developers have capitalised on Netscape's success and have finally led to support being withdrawn for the AOL-owned system.

"While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," said Tom Drapeau, the lead developer for Netscape.com, on the Netscape blog last year.

AOL will provide an update for Netscape 9 users that will help Netscape users migrate to recommended alternatives, such as Firefox and social web browser Flock.

Both Flock and Firefox are built on the same underlying technology base as Netscape.