They shared Netscape’s source code with the public, and over time built a community of programmers around the world that helped make the product even better.īy 2004, Mozilla launched Firefox, and by 2006, the free, open-source browser had captured nearly 30% of the market. Netscape was mostly phased out of the market by then, which meant Internet Explorer didn’t have much competition until Mozilla entered the arena.įounded by members of Netscape, Mozilla began in 1998 as a project for fostering innovation in the web browser market. By the early 2000s, it had captured over 90% of the market, reflecting Microsoft’s hold on the personal computing market. Given the popularity of the Windows franchise at the time, Internet Explorer was quickly adopted. In 1995, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer as part of an add-on package for its operating system, Microsoft Windows 95. The 2000s: Internet Explorer Enters the Chat, Followed by Firefox However, in the new millennium, a new tech giant started to take over-Internet Explorer. Netscape dominated the market for a few more years. By the late 90s, Netscape had captured 89% of the web browser market. Netscape became a nearly instant success, and as a result, Mosaic’s market share began to fall. Netscape was essentially a new and improved version of Mosaic, but since the University of Illinois owned the rights to Mosaic, Andreessen’s new company couldn’t actually use any of the original code. When Andreessen graduated, he went on to be the co-founder of Mosaic Communications Corporation, which evolved into Netscape Communications Corporation, the company that created Netscape Navigator. The pioneering portal was created by a team of university undergrads at the University of Illinois, led by 21-year-old Marc Andreessen. Earlier browsers loaded pictures as separate files, which meant users have to click, download, and open a new file in order to view them. Mosaic was the first web browser to display images directly on a page in line with text. At the time, about 97% of all internet searches were done through this popular web portal. In the early 90s, Mosaic was by far the most dominant web browser. This animated graphic by James Eagle chronicles the evolution of the web browser market, showing the rise and fall of various internet portals from January 1994 to March 2022.
Comparatively, modern browsers in high use today have changed exponentially. Mosaic was one of the first “user-friendly” internet portals-although by today’s standards, the browser was actually quite difficult to access. But that all changed when the Mosaic web browser entered the scene in 1993. In its early stages, the internet was a highly technical interface that most people had difficulty navigating.
Animation: The Rise and Fall of Popular Web Browsers Since 1994
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