Worldwide Contest to Develop Customized Themes for New Web Browser

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 8, 2000 - Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), today announced an international Netscape® 6 "Themes Contest" for active Internet users and Web developers. The contest begins in conjunction with the release of the Preview Release 2 version of the Netscape 6 browser and will run through September 30, 2000. The Themes, or "skins" function, in Netscape 6, based entirely on open Web standards, now gives businesses, professional designers and Web enthusiasts the ability to design a custom browsing experience.

"Individual users and businesses of all sizes have told us that they want every aspect of their Internet experience to be personalized for them, and to be customizable," said Jim Martin, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Netscape. "Netscape 6 customization tools now give users the ability to easily tailor their browser to reflect their personalities. It also gives businesses the ability to modify the appearance of their Netscape 6 browsers to mirror the unique look and feel of their organizations. As an extension of our longstanding commitment to open standards and overall accessibility, we encourage Web designers and enthusiasts, from pros to beginners, to get creative, have some fun and enter our Netscape 6 Themes Contest."

In line with Netscape's history of setting the standard for Internet customization and encouraging creativity and innovation within the Internet community at large, the winning Themes from around the world will be showcased in Netscape's "Theme Park" at the end of the contest. Contest prizes include a Philips plasma television, a Sony digital camera, and a special edition iBook from Apple. Judges for the contest include: Aaron Betsky, Curator of Design and Architecture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Danny Goodman, Author and JavaScript Guru; Jay Lee, New Media Artist; and Chris Nelson, Owner/MozillaZine.org. For more information and contest rules, users should visit www.netscape.com/themes/.

Also announced today as a part of the new customization features within Netscape 6 is the Netscape Theme Builder. This tool, being developed by Alphanumerica, a web services firm specializing in customizing open source software, will provide an introduction into the customization options that Netscape 6 makes possible. Netscape Theme Builder will be available in beta later this month and will enable organizations and others to quickly transform their Netscape 6 browsers into extensions of their brands and identities by creating custom skins with company colors and logos. Individuals can also use the building tool to create their own personal themes, and share them with the world. Users can go to www.netscape.com/themes/ for more information on the beta version of the Netscape Theme Builder.

About Netscape 6
Netscape 6 is a premier gateway for delivering information and communications services across rapidly converging interactive platforms. It is based on contributions from developers around the world through mozilla.org, the organization chartered with managing Netscape's open source initiative among Internet developers and Netscape. Building on the open source code, the new Netscape Navigator in Netscape 6 was created with Netscape's new Gecko browsing engine software and Gecko Technologies, to Internet-enable a wide variety of applications and products. Netscape 6 also features industry-leading standards support and is the first commercial browser to fully implement open Web standards including XML, HTML 4.0, CSS1, W3C DOM Level 0 and 1, JavaScript 1.5, and RDF, enabling developers to write once to W3C standards to build rich, dynamic Web pages and XML Web-based applications that look and run as intended across a variety of platforms and devices.

About Netscape

Netscape is a leading provider of software and services for businesses that want to transform the way they create and keep customers in the emerging Net Economy. A subsidiary of America Online, Inc., Netscape is based in Mountain View, California. Additional information on Netscape is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com, or by calling corporate sales at 650-937-2555.