AOL is to cease support for the Netscape web browser from 1 February 2008 and is advising customers to move to Firefox.

Netscape director Tom Drapeau said in a posting on his blog that the browser is not making any inroads against Internet Explorer and that the company will concentrate on other areas.

"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 that many of its fans expect it to be," he said.

"Given AOL's current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it is the right time to end development of Netscape-branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox."

Netscape was set up in 1994 by internet pioneers Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark as 'Mosaic' and was initially the most popular browser in the world.

However, after Microsoft targeted the company by releasing Internet Explorer for free the company went into decline and was bought by AOL in 1998 for $4.2bn.

Netscape helped to get the Mozilla Foundation started by open sourcing an older version of one of its browsers, and has worked closely on the development of Firefox.

AOL won the rights to use Internet Explorer as part of its settlement of an antitrust case with Microsoft, but has consistently favoured open source options.