Watch out for lots of

Watch out for lots of browser stories in the run up to the launch of the Mozilla browser, based very loosely on what used to be called Netscape Navigator. (After four years hard work, it isn't based on the same junk code.) High hopes rest on a global multimedia megacoroporation foisting it on 100 million* tied users -- which would be criminal if Microsoft did it but is wholly righteous when it is done by AOL, of course. * The typical mistake in this story is that if AOL adopts Mozilla, it will replace Internet Explorer "as the default browser for some 35 million Web surfers". This is nonsense. AOL may have roughly 35 million subscribers, but each account offers multiple screen names catering for multiple users -- usually, whole families use one account. It would be interesting to have a reliable figure for the number of users, but 100 million must be in the right ball park. In fact, it looks as though AOL has a monopoly market share of the number of Americans who use the Web....