When I read that Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) website didn't officially support the world's second-largest web browser until just recently, I was stunned. The Mozilla Foundation, maker of the super-popular Firefox web browser, now commands about 19% of the global web browser market, behind Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Internet Explorer web browser.

Yet, many (many) websites I visit (some very high-profile ones) were made for Internet Explorer only. These websites break at various points when using the Firefox web browser, mine, and millions others, favorite.

What are these Fortune 500 companies thinking? If a product has nearly 20% of any market, you darn well better pay attention to it. With more and more time being spent online instead of in front of the TV, website publishers need to recognize the value of supporting more than just the leading web browser. I can easily understand not designing a web experience for products that have lower single-digit market shares, but that's not what we're talking about here.

So, it was with disdain that I recently read that a Bank of America web support representative stating, "Please note Bank of America does not support Firefox." With email, actual workflow applications, multimedia and an entire media consumption empire existing on the web, the challenge for many websites will be to not forget the other large pieces of the pie. Ignore web browsers with growing market share at your peril, I say.

Although AOL has chosen to withdraw continuing development of the Netscape Navigator browser, you'll be able to continue using it indefinitely. Honestly though, who would want to?

Netscape doesn't have much in the way of loyalists in the realm of content suppliers, and web users seem not to care much what browser they use as long as the utility is fast, accurate and simple. I myself switched from Netscape to Firefox during the last year because Navigator was giving me image handling problems and Mozilla Firefox proved to be easier, faster and less burdensome.

Since 1994, Netscape has been a leading-edge web utility. However in recent years, competition from Mozilla Firefox has relentlessly scooped away market share from Netscape and a strong and victorious competitive battle has been waged in the interest of Internet Explorer by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Although Netscape proved to be a strong web utility, in the last few years it lacked any significant improvements in user friendliness. I think that situation is in part due to Microsoft's reluctance to make the Windows operating system play nice with Netscape Navigator. We may take pause to wonder if Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) ever properly applied pressure on Microsoft over the situation ... probably not.

In the big picture, no one is going to miss Netscape Navigator. Yes, some few loyalists might whine for a while and some people with fully loaded hard drives might find their machines maxed out by the downloading of a new browser and the system changes associated with that, but in the end it's all good if it makes the browsing experience faster and easier for the end user. Besides, it might force the sale of some new computers, yes?

Perhaps AOL should just spin off Netscape, take a bit of cash for it and write the rest off. That might be easiest in the long run. When given the fact that AOL will apparently be relegating Netscape to second-tier status, do you really think it'll ever get better?

Stick a fork in it gang, it's done.

One noteworthy takeaway from Google's Wednesday analyst call (liveblogged by Brian White) is that Google does not have plans to build its own browser. 

With Google expanding in so many directions, it is worth noting that Google's recent expansion into the desktop space via Dell doesn't mean it will be going one step further with a desktop Internet browser.

This makes sense as Google recently partnered with Firefox and as CEO Eric Schmidt states, people are content with the current browser options: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, so there isn't a demand for Google to develop an alternative. Google, "would not build a browser just for the fun of building a browser," he says. 

Schmidt did however voice his concerns over Microsoft's upcoming releases of its new OS Microsoft Vista and the prepackaged new release of Internet Explorer. Schmidt's concerns have similar undertones to Netscape's prior arguments over anti-competition -- that by prepackaging and other possible integrations, Microsoft will use it's dominant position on a user's desktop to drive their searching towards MSN.

With Google having reprioritzed on 'search', could Schmidt's concerns touch on Chairman Gate's allusions to MSN re-emerging when the stage and timing is set?