The Web Browser has great 15 years History. A look Back

Web Browser Milestones

The Web browser turns 15 on Oct. 13, 2009 - a key milestone in the history of the Internet. That’s when the first commercial Web browser - eventually called Netscape Navigator - was released as beta code. While researchers including World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and a team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications created Unix browsers between 1991 and 1994, Netscape Navigator made this small piece of desktop software a household name. By allowing average users to view text and images posted on Web sites, Netscape Navigator helped launch the Internet era along with multiple browser wars, government-led lawsuits and many software innovations. Here are 15 highlights in the history of the Web browser.
First commercial browser released (Oct. 13, 1994): Mosaic Communications Corp. – later renamed Netscape Communications Corp. – releases the beta version of its Web browser, called Mosaic Netscape 0.9. It was based on the Mosaic code developed by the NCSA, and Mosaic co-author Marc Andreessen was a co-founder of Netscape. The browser was later renamed Netscape Navigator. Version 1.0 was released on Dec. 15. Navigator was the first commercial Web browser to be wildly successful, rapidly achieving 90% market share before Microsoft entered the fray and took over the market. By 2000, Netscape's market share would fall under 1%, Janco Associates says.

April 30, 1995

Web traffic dominates Internet (April 30, 1995): Six months after Netscape released its browser, Web traffic became the leading type of traffic on the Internet. For example, Web traffic accounted for 21% of the traffic on the National Science Foundation's NSFNET backbone, while the No. 2 usage, File Transfer Protocol, traffic accounted for 14% of the traffic, according to livinginternet.com . This was a sign of the rapid adoption of Navigator, which saw 50 million copies distributed in its first two years, according to BusinessWeek .

Aug. 24, 1995

Microsoft muscles into browser market (Aug. 24, 1995): Microsoft released Internet Explorer 1.0 in its Windows 95 Plus! Pack. Internet Explorer was built upon software licensed from Spyglass, an offshoot of NCSA that owned the technology behind the Mosaic browser. Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer into its operating system and provided it free of charge. Microsoft's approach was smart; two years later Microsoft had replaced Netscape as the leading browser provider, with 49% of the market compared with 46% for Netscape, according to Janco Associates.

Jan. 1, 1997

Opera introduced, targets mobile devices (Jan. 1, 1997): Based in Norway, Internet Opera Software released its first Web browser for Windows, dubbed Opera 2.1. Opera has been a minor player in the Web browser market since then; it currently has 1.1% of the market, according to Janco Associates. Version 10 was released on Sept. 1, 2009. Opera Software claims 40 million users on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. Its mobile version — Opera Mini — claims 30 million users, including many BlackBerry users.

Feb. 23, 1998

Netscape creates open source Mozilla project (Feb. 23, 1998): Netscape created the Mozilla Organization as an open source developer that would provide a free version of its browser. By February 1998, Netscape — which had 28% browser market share — had been vanquished by Microsoft — which had 69% market share — in the first browser war. In July 2003, the Mozilla Organization would morph into the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit. In 2005, the for-profit Mozilla Corp.— was created and would eventually deliver the popular Firefox browser.

May 18, 1998

Feds sue Microsoft over bundled browser (May 18, 1998): The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust case against Microsoft alleging that Microsoft abused monopoly power by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser into its Windows operating system. Working for DOJ, attorney David Boies (shown here) won the trial, and the verdict was upheld on appeal. DOJ reached a settlement with Microsoft in 2001, requiring Microsoft to share its APIs with other companies. Microsoft is required to meet this obligation until November 2009.

Nov. 24, 1998

AOL buys Netscape (Nov. 24, 1998): AOL announced plans to buy Netscape for $4.2 billion. The deal was a stock-for-stock transaction that ended up being worth more than $10 billion when it closed in March 1999. The merger required approval by the U.S. Department of Justice on antitrust grounds. AOL was not successful at helping Netscape regain market share for Navigator . In December 2007, AOL announced that it would no longer support Netscape Web browsers.

Jan. 7, 2003

Apple enters browser fray with Safari (Jan. 7, 2003). Apple released a beta version of Safari, which would become its standard Web browser built into the Mac operating system later that year. In June 2007, Apple released a version of Safari for Windows XP and Vista systems. Safari also is the browser used in Apple's iPhone. In June 2009, Apple released Safari 4 featuring speedier performance, enhanced integration with Windows and an at-a-glance view of a user's favorite Web sites. More than 11 million copies of Safari 4 were downloaded in the first three days of availability, Apple said. A niche player, Safari has less than 1% market share, Janco Associates says.


Feb. 9, 2004

Firefox released, gains mindshare with techies (Feb. 9, 2004): The Mozilla Foundation released a beta version of Firefox — dubbed Firebox 0.8 — that would soon catch on as a speedy alternative to Internet Explorer. By 2004, Microsoft had more than 87% of the browser market, according to Janco Associates. But within six months of this release, Firefox was the preferred browser among techies, winning awards at Linuxworld Expo and being dubbed hot by Wired Magazine. Firefox grew in popularity, and today this free, open source browser has 19.2% market share


Sept. 2, 2008

Google Chrome introduced (Sept. 2, 2008): Google announced the beta release of its open source Chrome browser for Microsoft Windows systems. Google offered a developer's version that supports Linux and Apple Macintosh systems in June 2009. Now, Google is on Version 3 of Chrome, which aims at being speedier than competitors with a cleaner layout and design. So far, Google has attracted more press than users with Chrome. Currently, Chrome has 3.7% browser market share, according to Janco Associates.