SillyDog701

[Andrew T.]

According to a new C|net article, AOL is planning to release an AOL-branded "standalone web browser" not tied to its online service. Like AOL's existing software for Windows, the new standalone browser calls upon Microsoft Internet Explorer for its rendering.

America Online is planning to release its own stand-alone Web browser based on Microsoft's Internet Explorer technology, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.

AOL Browser, as it's called, will be available as a separate download for Web users. The software will be based on a stripped-down version of IE and will be branded with AOL's logos, the sources said. Up until now, the Time Warner division has only offered a browser that's tied to its popular Internet service. That browser also uses IE technology.

[...]

I need to question the logic in releasing this product. Among other reasons, AOL already does offer a superior browser not tied to its online service: Netscape.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041001 Firefox/0.10.1

[Don_HH2K]

Andrew,

Although Netscape is a superior standalone browser, it doesn't scream "AOL" at the top of its lungs like the AOL program does. There's reference to it, but not a whole lot besides the desktop icons.

I was under the impression that there was already a standalone AOL browser based on IE. If you install AOL on Win98 or higher, Internet Explorer is converted to "Internet Explorer provided by America Online". I'm going to guess this is a standalone version of the same thing.

And a stripped-down version of IE? How can you strip it down, there's nothing to it!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040910

[DJGM]

Earlier this year, AOL surprised almost everyone on the internet by (sort of) relaunching Netscape
browser development. Now they shoot themselves in the foot by announcing an IE based browser!

Sometimes, I really despair of certain large corporations, and the totally dumbass things they do!

What is the point of yet another IE based browser? There's more than enough of those things out
there as it is. Is it be AOL's way of rivalling Google's recently speculated plans of launching a
new web browser, (which could be launched as a Google branded version of Mozilla) ?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/125.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/125.9

[Don_HH2K]

What is the point of yet another IE based browser? There's more than enough of those things out
there as it is. Is it be AOL's way of rivalling Google's recently speculated plans of launching a
new web browser, (which could be launched as a Google branded version of Mozilla) ?

The event of an AOL-Google rivalry is unlikely, since AOL licenses search technology from Google anyway.

As for why another IE-based browser, there's a great explanation for that. The only AOL Internet browser that is completely AOL branded is the AOL service itself. That's not free, this is. As for the advantage, who knows, they might do something Maxathon-esque and put in tabbrowser features. Or, it could just be re-branded IE.

And a Google-branded version of Mozilla? Now there's a possibility. They could copy Netscape and re-code Mail/News for GMail, add proprietary branding, and throw in a search toolbar, there's Google-zilla.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a4) Gecko/20040927

[Mandrake]

According to someone close to Google:

Imagine a web browser that ties directly into Google. Or imagine Google as a part of YOUR network.. This application will do MORE then browse... it will serve all kinds of data. And there will be subscriptions for certain classes of data.... and well, let's just say it will be the prelude to a virtual office environment. Think Sharepoint or similiar, but not really. Not as crappy either. Google is in a race with m$ on these things... that is why you are seeing DENY DENY DENY, but rest assured, all of it is coming. The things on the board:

1. Browsing
2. Extended Search
3. Subscription Feeds
4. "Office" like sharing (whiteboard, wiki stuff)
5. File keeper (and you thought 1 gig was cool)
6. Multimedia capability
7. Mail (you have gmail already)
8. Journal (you've seen something like this too)
9. Social Networking (Orkut is just a rough idea of what is to come here, but think rolodex on steroids, in your address book)

And much much more. You see... I know things. I know what Google is doing, and it both amazes me, excites me, and scares me.

(Original content can be found on /.)

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040911 Firefox/0.10.1

[Edward]

Could this be something along the lines of the old NeoPlanet browser?

UserAgent: Opera/7.54 (Windows NT 5.1; U) [en]