In the early 1990s, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and the first browser was developed in 1991 called Nexus. Since then, many browsers came out making big headlines and creating unforgettable moments in the software industry.
It all started with Mosaic, developed by NCSA which became the first browser to get proper attention. With the success of Mosaic, one of the co-founders of it branched out and created another browser called Netscape Navigator, by the company Netscape Communications Corporation (NCC). This was the very first stable browser that most people (including myself) started to use. By 1995, helped by the fact that the browser was free, Netscape Navigator dominated the World Wide Web.
Seeing the success of NCC, Microsoft wanted to get in with the game and released the 1.0 of Internet Explorer in 1995. Thus began the so called “Browser war” between Netscape and Explorer which went until 1998 when Netscape was acquired by America Online for USD $ 4.2 billion. During this period both browsers went head on with each other, releasing new versions at a rapid pace trying to out do the other. It was inevitable that Netscape would fall by going head on with a giant like Microsoft. Having a market share of 90% over the operating system market, Microsoft freely bundled in Internet Explorer into it offering users a default browser to use. Most people saw this as abusing the monopoly Microsoft had and later on legal action was taken against them.
The war created a negative impact in the industry. By only focusing on adding new features instead of fixing bugs, each created a fancy looking browser which was unstable and unsafe. It also made them put in proprietary features which were specific to their requirements, not obeying to the set standards in the industry. This created a huge gap between major vendors, and end-users had to bare the burden of having the right browser with the right version to view web sites. I clearly remember the days when web sites would state up front “this site is best viewed in Netscape version 1.x” or “Internet Explorer.” Thankfully those days are gone.
With the end of Netscape, Internet Explorer became the new leader of the browser market. They achieved an astonishing 96% market share by 2000. But Netscape came back, in a different form. After the defeat, Netscape open sourced the code of Netscape Navigator which lead to the creation of the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla released the 1.0 version of Firefox which literally ate into Internet Explorer market. Subsequent versions of Firefox made huge leaps putting Microsoft off guard. Firefox version 3.0 set a world record by becoming the most downloaded software within 24 hours of its release.
It’s safe to say that Mozilla Firefox is the new Netscape Navigator and its back to challenge the giant to reclaim its rightful place! It’s obvious which side I’m cheering for. |
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