Browser Breakdown

Browser Wars

The Browser Wars refer to periods of intense competition between web browsers, particularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s usage share, driving innovation and standardization.

The first web browser was "WorldWideWeb", hence the three W's that tended to begin most website URLs (ie: www.youtube.com), which was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. What initially started as a concept based on hypertext in 1980, would evolve as he gained ideas for the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and DNS (Domain Name System), which would all come together to for the WorldWideWeb in 1990. This browser originally ran on NeXTSTEP operating system, where his software proved to work both as a software editor and as the first web server.

Competing and updated web browsers would begin to trickle in rather quickly, such as Mosaic in 1993, who's lead developers would then found the Netscape cooperation and create Netscape Navigator in 1994. Netscape's place in the timeline is a notable mention due to it's eventual evolution into one of the most commonly used web browsers today; Mozilla Firefox which debuted only ten years later in 2004 and originally prided itself on being a secure web browser that ensures the protection of user data.

One of the most iconic, albeit for it's extremely poor performance even by old standards, was Microsoft's Internet Explorer which debuted in 1995. Internet Explorer was the original default browser to be packaged with the Windows operating system, before the development of Microsoft Edge along with the eventual end of the browser in 2022 and the service termination of Internet Explorer in 2023. Microsoft was not the only company to package a company-made browser with their systems, as Apple's Macintosh Operating Systems would come packaged with Safari by default after its debut in 2003.

Google, most popularly known for it's revolutionary internet search engine Google Search that debuted in 1998, would also develop a rather infamous web browser in 2008; Google Chrome. Despite it's common issue of taking much of a computers RAM and criticisms regarding it's security, it became the most popular Browser in 2012 and has remained as such since.

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