At one time, the undisputed king of web browser software was Netscape. Granted, Netscape Navigator was not the first graphical browser—that honor goes to NCSA Mosaic, which predates Netscape by a year—but Netscape was certainly more popular, and responsible for bringing the World Wide Web into the mainstream.
The first publicly available version of Netscape was released in October 1994, with a proper version-1.0 release following in December. Netscape had its roots in Mosaic—it was developed by a firm led in part by Marc Andreessen, who had previously worked on Mosaic; implemented some of its technology from Mosaic, and was even called "Mosaic NetScape" in its earliest releases—but was far more advanced than Mosaic ever had been. Many of the features now ubiquitous in web browsers—such as an intuitive, graphical user interface and the capability of displaying images while loading a page, first surfaced in early versions of Netscape Navigator. Netscape Navigator 1.1 followed in April 1995, and Netscape was on a roll. Subsequent versions in close succession implemented greatly improved rendering capabilities as well as support for features—some of them innovative 'push' technologies—such as colors, frames, animated GIF images, Java, and JavaScript. Due to these innovative features and technology, availability for a multitude of platforms, ease of use, and initial licensing arrangements on the honor system that allowed the software to be free for noncommercial use, Netscape Navigator was extremely popular. By some accounts, Netscape Navigator held as much as 90% browser market share at this time. Netscape Communications went public in August 1995, and Navigator 2.0 and 3.0 were released the following year, implementing an e-mail client and also available in a "Gold" version that included an easy-to-use HTML editor. Netscape seemed undefeatable.
Microsoft, meanwhile, was late to catch on to the significance of the World Wide Web. While Netscape was setting the standard and enjoying 90% market share, Microsoft was preoccupied with getting Windows 95 out the door and introducing the Microsoft Network (MSN), originally a proprietary online service along the lines of CompuServe or Prodigy conceived largely as an alternative to the World Wide Web. When Microsoft did decide to go about making a browser, it licensed outright the Spyglass Mosaic browser (itself derivative of the technologies of NCSA Mosaic), relabeled it "Internet Explorer," and included it as an accessory with the Windows 95 Plus! pack and the CD-ROM version of Windows 95.
Early versions of Internet Explorer were hardly competitive, lacking many of the features and page-rendering abilities found in contemporary versions of Netscape, and in fact the very first version was designed to be used only in conjunction with the Microsoft Network online service. It was not until Internet Explorer 3.0 was released in August 1996 that the software had arguably become a competitive alternative to Netscape Navigator. Microsoft had noted Netscape's dominance of web browsers—as well as the prospect of a world where applications ran inside web browsers, regardless of the platform—and considered it as a threat. As such, Internet Explorer 3.0 was marketed in extensive and sometimes unprecedented ways. Microsoft began making its browser downloadable for free. Internet Explorer 3.0 was pre-installed on all copies of Windows 95 OSR2, and was not easily removable. Furthermore, Microsoft devised stipulations that discouraged or prevented computer manufacturers from pre-installing Netscape Navigator or other browsers on their computers, or even removing the Internet Explorer icon by default—tactics key as evidence of abuse in the anti-trust trial brought against Microsoft by the U.S. Department of Justice and twenty states in 1998. That icon was labeled not Internet Explorer but "The Internet," seemingly implying to new users that it and IE were one and the same. Internet Explorer contained support for Microsoft's own proprietary technologies such as ActiveX, which were only compatible with Windows, as well as a variety of nonstandard HTML markup tags (although Netscape was equally guilty of introducing support for and advocating its own proprietary markup during this time). Furthermore, Internet Explorer 3.0 was improved technologically as well—it was reasonably easy to use, had decent rendering capabilities for its time, and was one of the first browsers to implement support for cascading style sheets. Netscape had a real rival at last.
In spite of the circumstances, however, Internet Explorer was still a flawed product. It was available for only three platforms whereas Netscape Navigator was available for over a dozen; some of its touted technologies such as ActiveX were proprietary, insecure, and in any case underutilized; it was plagued by bugs and frequent security holes, and some parts of the browser were still not as well-developed as they were in Netscape Navigator. Although Internet Explorer gained some market share at the expense of Netscape Navigator, there seemed little compelling incentive to use it instead. Netscape's software, meanwhile, blossomed into a full-featured Internet suite; the rechristened Netscape Communicator 4.0 was released in June 1997, implementing a brand new look as well as numerous improvements and features of its own such as support for CSS, JavaScript 1.2, and dynamic HTML as well as brand new services extending beyond a simple browser's scope such as Netscape Conference and Netcaster. Netscape also began developing its website into an interactive portal with ties to its browser.
Internet Explorer 4.0 followed in October 1997, implementing major and surprising changes. CSS support and overall rendering capabilities were marginally improved, but the most significant changes were related to the way the browser was designed itself, namely the introduction of "web integration" on Windows. Previously versions of Internet Explorer for Windows were designed as "normal" applications operating fairly independently of the operating system itself, but this changed with IE 4.0. Internet Explorer 4.0 introduced Active Desktop, a feature that allowed an active web page to be set as the Windows desktop, "shell updates" that replaced the Windows Explorer file manager with Internet Explorer windows, and "Active Channel" technology, a proprietary technology competitive with Netscape Netcaster and also integrated into the Windows desktop. Also, it was now possible for other applications to call upon the engine of Internet Explorer for HTML rendering in instances such as an online help system; as a consequence, many applications unrelated to web browsing or Internet communications began to be released "requiring" Internet Explorer 4.0 to be installed in order to function correctly. Most of these "web integration" enhancements added little in the way of practicality and did nothing but increase boot times (due to most Internet Explorer code being loaded on startup) and deteriorate the performance of Windows 95 and NT 4.0 computers. Furthermore, some individuals reported being unable to properly run other browsers after installing IE 4.0, and needing to reformat to fully remove the software. Internet Explorer 4.0 was plagued by bugs and security issues of its own—exacerbated by its integration with the Windows operating system—and many service packs and updates were released for the browser during its run.
The following year, Microsoft released Windows 98, an operating system that was integrated with Internet Explorer 4.01 as well as having it preinstalled. Most of the "web integration" features introduced by Internet Explorer 4.0 made their way into Windows 98—the shell application and help system were now parts of Internet Explorer, for example, and remain so in all subsequent versions of Windows to this day. This integration resulted in consumers needing to use Internet Explorer in some form or another on most new PCs rather than merely have it installed and, perhaps, ignored on their computers. Windows computers were not the only ones on which Internet Explorer was preinstalled; IE replaced Netscape as the default browser on the Macintosh as well as part of a 1997 agreement that also involved Microsoft purchasing $150 million in Apple stock and pledging to develop Office for the Mac for five years. Most of the concerns about Internet Explorer 4.0's disadvantages also carried over to Windows 98, although by this point the browser had been updated enough to be usable and continued to substantiate Internet Explorer's growth in popularity at Netscape's expense.
Netscape, meanwhile, had unveiled an industry partnership program in August 1997 allowing Netscape browsers to be bundled with other companies' products. Netscape Communicator 4.5 was released in October 1998; a minor change implementing modest functionality improvements.
It was the release of Internet Explorer 5.0 in March 1999, preceded by two preview releases, that at least temporarily turned the "browser wars" in Microsoft's favor. IE 5.0 introduced improved CSS capabilities, unicode and rudimentary XML support, and other positive rendering changes. Many of the more detrimental bugs that plagued IE 4.0 had been ironed out, although the browser was still integrated into Windows 98 SE and (when released) 2000. For the first time ever, Netscape Communicator began to find itself at a pronounced technological disadvantage compared with Internet Explorer. More websites began to take advantage of extensive CSS and JavaScript as well as other technologies that sometimes rendered poorly in Netscape Communicator. In addition, Netscape Communicator 4.x—particularly early versions—became infamous for its tendency to crash when digesting certain intensive code as well as its numerous bugs and quirks in page rendering, particularly when CSS was used, and was left without compelling advantages over IE except in certain matters such as security and platform availability. Even releasing most versions of Netscape Navigator and Communicator for free where they had once cost money did little to stem Netscape's decline in popularity. While immediately earlier Netscape and IE were nearly tied in popularity, when Internet Explorer 5.0 was current the discrepancy rose to the point where IE was undoubtedly dominant while Netscape Navigator and Communicator were reduced to a more modest user base. Even today, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 will typically render more websites in an acceptable manner (if nothing else) than the Netscape Communicator 4.x releases that were current at the same time.
Microsoft had undermined Netscape's business model and deteriorated their market share. Clearly, something needed to be done on Netscape's part if it was to survive, and soon. On March 31, 1998, Netscape Communications publicly released the Netscape Communicator source code, while also working on its next-generation browser, tentatively known as Netscape 5.0. On November 24, 1998, America Online announced that it would acquire Netscape Communications Corporation for $4.2 billion.
After the acquisition, Netscape began including references to AOL properties and features such as AOL Instant Messenger in its browsers and website, but there were initially little other changes. Netscape continued working on its next-generation, open-source browser, which was offset by setbacks and delays. The existing Communicator code proved to be unsalvageable, so work resumed almost from scratch with new technology including a new rendering engine, called Gecko. This was the Mozilla project—so named after the original codename for Netscape Navigator and also the green lizard that was the firm's mascot in its early days. Builds of the alpha-grade software began to be publicly released, referred to at first as "Communicator Prototypes" but later "Mozilla Milestones." Much of the technology implemented in these Milestones was superior to the poor page-rendering capabilities and spaghetti code of Netscape 4.x and much more concerned with compliance with published web standards than previous versions, although they remained very buggy and not suitable for general use. These releases ultimately served as the basis for the next Netscape-branded browser, Netscape 6.0; the version number presumably selected for marketing reasons.
Netscape 6.0 was released to great publicity in November 2000, but was very poorly received. Designed from the ground up and having little or no code in common with earlier releases, Netscape 6.0 was also slow on many systems, unstable, difficult to remove, poor at page rendering, and rather ugly. By this time Netscape had lost quite a bit of browser market share, but Netscape 6.0 did little to win back any popularity and is generally considered a premature product in retrospective. Netscape 6.1 and 6.2 followed within a year and had weeded out most of Netscape 6.0's bugs and outstanding flaws, adding new features and greatly improved stability, page rendering, and even appearances, but the damage had been done and the releases had minimal overall effect on upsetting the market share of Internet Explorer. Meanwhile, incremental maintenance releases of Netscape Communicator 4.x—with few if any new features and very much an outdated 1998 browser by this point—continued to be developed as late as 2002.
After its success with Internet Explorer 5.x, Microsoft began to taper off development of its browser. Internet Explorer 6.0 was released in October 2001, coinciding with Windows XP; however, changes over IE 5.5 were minimal apart from security and privacy updates and modest page-rendering improvements. Internet Explorer 6.0 was also the first version ever not to be capable of running on Windows 95. This was later followed by announcements that Internet Explorer would be discontinued for both Sun Solaris and HP-UX (September 2002) and, surprisingly, the Apple Macintosh (June 2003). Additionally, Internet Explorer has also been discontinued as a standalone application for Windows—future development of IE will only be conducted as part of updates for the newest versions of the Windows operating system. In a sense, the misguided "web integration" efforts that began with Internet Explorer 4.0's blurring between browser and OS are now complete.
Meanwhile, with help from contributors and other organizations, Netscape continued to develop Mozilla builds; Netscape 6.0 and subsequent versions were essentially versions of Mozilla builds with Netscape logos and proprietary AOL features added on. At the time, Mozilla builds were aimed toward developers while Netscape releases were more suitable for "civilian" end users. Each subsequent Mozilla build brought pronounced improvements in matters such as page rendering, stability, security, and features. By the time Netscape 7.0 was released in August 2002 (itself derived from Mozilla 1.0.1), Netscape had become a fully-competitive browser once again, implementing new and nifty features such as tabbed browsing, featuring technology and rendering capabilities superior to Internet Explorer, and now much more stable than either the older 6.x or 4.x versions of Netscape browsers. While Netscape 7.0 was more successful than Netscape 6.x had been, it was poorly marketed by AOL and did not take a substantial dent out of Internet Explorer's then-vastly dominant market share. Ironically, aside from keeping the projects afloat, AOL appeared to do little to substantially promote either Netscape or Mozilla once the products had become mature, and continued to use Microsoft Internet Explorer in its own proprietary software! To its credit, AOL did eventually switch to the "Gecko" rendering technology of Netscape and Mozilla for the Macintosh version of AOL as well as its CompuServe browser, but a Windows version of AOL's software based upon Gecko never got beyond the testing stage due in part to disinterest from AOL's own users.
In July 2003, shortly after Netscape 7.1 was released and AOL had won a right to continue using Internet Explorer in its own proprietary software for the next seven years, America Online essentially disbanded the Netscape browser development team. This did not prove to be the end, however, as Mozilla—now overseen by the newly-created Mozilla Foundation operating autonomously of AOL—continued to be developed with the support of several other companies. Simultaneously, Mozilla began to market its products directly to end users as opposed to only developers, and concentrate development on new standalone applications that had developed from the existing Mozilla application suite codebase in the previous year. These applications—a browser initially codenamed Phoenix, and an e-mail client codenamed Thunderbird—were conceived due to their improvements in size and performance over the existing Mozilla application suite, that continued to be developed for the time being. Phoenix's codename changed twice, finalizing on "Mozilla Firefox" in February 2004.
Mozilla Firefox gained quite a bit of attention throughout the Internet community and even mainstream press throughout 2004. Though initially in pre-1.0 version status, Mozilla Firefox was easy to install, simple and intuitive to use, and often quick. As such, it implemented all of the technological advantages, including rendering capability, major browser features, and security employed in the older Mozilla application suite (and by extension, Netscape 7.x), in an easy-to-use product more suitable for end users. In addition, Firefox implemented several new and innovative features of its own, including a simple "Live Bookmarks" system of integrating RSS feeds into bookmarks. Mozilla Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004, and attracted an great amount of positive attention upon its debut. Praised for its security, technology, customizability, and other advantages as well as good marketing techniques, Mozilla Firefox is doing what Netscape 6.0, Netscape 7.0, and the Mozilla application suite could not: Catch on.
The Netscape name is technically still in use, but only as a brand unceremoniously slapped on anything as AOL sees fit. The regularly-maintained, competitive Netscape browser is largely a thing of the past, superseded by Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox. A belated Netscape 7.2 browser release, a substantially different Netscape 8.0 browser distinguished primarily by its ugly appearance and its optional capability of using the Internet Explorer rendering engine, and even an inexpensive ISP bearing the Netscape name have all been released or announced by AOL after the Netscape browser team ceased to exist, sometimes with development work contracted to outside firms.
Internet Explorer has come under a fair amount of criticism lately for a variety of reasons. It is prone to security vulnerabilities, due in part to its proprietary technologies (such as ActiveX), its integration with Windows, and also the sluggish nature in which Microsoft responds to amending such flaws. Its rendering technologies—essentially unchanged for four years—have come under fire for being relatively obsolete and not being capable of handling more-advanced CSS and other contemporary technologies—ironically similar to the criticisms of Netscape Communicator 4.x not long ago. It is no longer developed for any platform except the newest version of Windows, and sure enough Internet Explorer 6.0 SP2 is only available for Windows XP. Unlike its newfound competition, Internet Explorer 6.0 does not implement a pop-up window blocker (except on SP2 for Windows XP), it only allows one web page to be loaded in a single window at once, and its handling of passwords, cookies, and even matters such as the "page info" dialog are also inferior to that of other browsers like Mozilla Firefox. Strictly speaking, it is not even compliant with the HTTP protocol. And virtually all Internet Explorer releases are notoriously permissive of badly-coded HTML.
Microsoft Internet Explorer rose to prominence though dubious marketing tactics as much as or more than any natural advantages of the software. Today, Microsoft Internet Explorer is once again the browser holding the disadvantage. The conditions are now quite ripe for another browser to rise to prominence and take market share back from Internet Explorer once again. Mozilla Firefox, a direct descendant of the Netscape Navigator browser, is an excellent candidate to gain a bit of dominance at Microsoft's expense: It is available for more platforms, attractive in appearance, easy to use, customizable, implementative of many convenient and innovative features, quite advanced and competitive in its CSS support and overall rendering capabilities, reasonably fast, and secure. As such, it has grown in popularity to a notable amount within a short time, reflected in the traffic statistics of specialty websites where as many as one quarter of visitors or more may be using Firefox alone. That said, many other websites show market share of Netscape and its Mozilla descendants lingering below the 10% mark, and Internet Explorer remains the only browser preinstalled or endorsed in a large number of circles. There is still a long way to go.
![[Back]](../back.gif)
Web Journal![[Home]](../home.gif)
The Network