Netscape Initiates Retail Selling

Netscape Communications Corp., maker of software that’s helped popularize the World Wide Web portion of the Internet, will begin selling through stores for the first time.

Its new product will work with other features of the Internet, including electronic mail and discussion groups, and give people a choice of four Internet access companies, Netscape said Friday.

The development marks an acceleration of the race to provide a simple connection to the global computer network.

Netscape has become a standout because of the way it developed and distributed software to use the World Wide Web, a popular part of the Internet where graphics and text documents can be linked.