AOL has given its Netscape website browser one last gasp of air before pulling the plug. The once popular software had been due to lose its parents support on 1st February 2008 (original news), which has now been extended until 1st March 2008.

The move allows AOL to issue one final update to the browser, smoothing over a few bugs and making it easier for users to switch onto an alternative. Meanwhile the latest statistics from French Internet traffic analysis company XiTi Monitor shows that Firefox continues to gain market share.

XiTi's report shows that Internet Explorer still dominates with a weakened 66.1%, yet it's fast being caught up by Firefox on 28%, Opera with 3.3%, Safari on 2% and Netscape languishing in the back with 0.5%. Roughly 93% of Firefox users run v2 of the browser, while just 46% have switched from IE6 to IE7.