NaviSoft was a web server, web publishing and web hosting company based in the United States that was the first company to offer an integrated solution that combined a high-performance programmable web server, NaviServer, with a WYSIWYG HTML authoring tool, NaviPress, and a public web site for hosting published pages, public.navisoft.com. NaviSoft was acquired by AOL on November 30, 1994.

NaviSoft
Company typeSubsidiary of AOL
IndustryInternet, Software, Web Server, Web Publishing
Founded1993
HeadquartersGoleta, California USA
(as an independent company)
Dulles, Virginia USA
(after becoming part of AOL)
Key people
Linda Dozier (CTO) and
David C. Cole (CEO)
ProductsWeb Server, Web Publishing, Web Hosting
ParentAOL (after 1994)

Under AOL, the products and hosting service were rebranded AOLpress, AOLserver, and AOL PrimeHost, and AOL continued to offer those products and services through AOL's Internet Services Company. In 1995, AOL also acquired the Global Network Navigator[1] (GNN) and offered NaviSoft's products under the GNN brand.[2] as well.

AOL eventually stopped offering the WYSIWYG HTML authoring tool and web hosting services, but they continued to use AOLServer internally to run AOL's web services. In 1999, AOL released the source code[3] to AOLServer as open-source under the GNU or AOLServer Public License.[4] A friendly fork of version 4.10 of the AOLServer source code was released, and is still being developed and maintained, as NaviServer.

References

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  1. ^ "America Online to Buy GNN; Boon for Sebastopol-Based Company".
  2. ^ "GNN Hosting Service". 10 September 1996.
  3. ^ "AOLServer source code". GitHub.
  4. ^ "AOL Public License".