On the threshold of a new year, AOL is finally calling it quits on the Web browser scene. It has officially announced that it is pulling the plug on the historical Netscape Navigator browser that literally popularized the World Wide Web.

In a blog post on Friday, Netscape’s Tom Drapeau wrote:

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. 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 reigns fully to Mozilla, and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.

Additional reading:

Support for Netscape will continue through February 1, 2008, but AOL recommends that people move on to Firefox. Happy 2008, folks.