Netscape releases Netscape Navigator 9 beta 1

Netscape has released the first beta of Netscape 9, based on Firefox. This release includes URL correction, compatibility with Firefox 2 extensions, a “mini browser” sidebar, and integrates Netscape.com sitemail.

For those who remember the Netscape Navigator suite, it’s lost a little weight — Navigator no longer includes mail or HTML composer components, just a souped-up Firefox build with a number of features that integrate with the Netscape.com portal.

Navigator 9 has a News menu with feeds populated by Netscape.com. You can’t add your own RSS feeds to the news sources, but you can select from several dozen options provided by Netscape. It also sports integrated voting, so you can share stories on Netscape.com, or vote for stories in a Digg-like fashion if they’ve already been shared on that site.

Another handy feature in Netscape 9 is the Link Pad sidebar. Want to revisit a site, but don’t want to clutter your bookmarks? Just drop the link to the Link Pad and come back to it later. See the full list of new goodies on the What’s New page.

Netscape 9 is available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Grab the release on browser.netscape.com. Netscape 8’s update feature will not update the browser to Netscape 9.