Browser wars – the struggle for dominance in the market of web browsers . This term is often used to refer to competition ("browser war") in the mid-to late 1990s, two specific browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator , which then acted as the dominant browser.
Background to the Browser Wars
The first popular browser with a graphical interface was NCSA Mosaic , and then for a long time monopolized the market for Netscape Navigator . In 1996, Microsoft released the Windows 95 OSR2, which included Internet Explorer 3.0.
This point can be considered as the beginning browser wars, ending a complete triumph for the fall of Netscape and Internet Explorer, who took more than 95% of the market.
However, dying, Netscape inflicted "stab in the back» Microsoft, releasing the source code of its browser under a free license MPL (Mozilla Public License).
On the basis of (the code was written from scratch) the creation of new browsers Mozilla Suite and Mozilla Firefox . The latter is gradually gaining popularity.
Browser war would be extremely matter of commercial corporations, if the basic method in the fight is not the addition of specific, non-standard features to the browser.
The greatest differences appeared in support Javascript – a scripting language, which imparts an interactive document. As a result, many documents have been "optimized" for a particular browser, and it does not read in the other.
W3C takes a lot of careful discussion of standards (different versions of HTML , Javascript , CSS , etc.), but compliance with these standards, the entire responsibility of the developers of browsers.
In recent years the level of standards support has grown considerably, and of the widely used browsers, only Internet Explorer 6.0 (released August 27, 2001, several weeks before the Windows XP – October 25, 2001) had serious deficiencies in their support.
The first stage (one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five – 1,998)
Competition between browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator (Communicator) in the late 90's period. Home users can download Netscape Navigator browser for free, but corporate customers pay for each license $ 99.
December 7, 1995 Microsoft released its response – Internet Explorer is version 2, and the income derived from Microsoft sales of Windows and Office , allowed “to extend” Explorer for free and for corporations.
In this case IE deeply integrated into the system by intentionally tying the browser to the desktop user uninstall and difficulty, the new versions of Windows.
Netscape could not resist dumping , and in 1999 the corporate browser market has ceased to exist – is completely free Explorer captured more than 90 percent of the market.
After the destruction of Marc Andreessen ( Marc Andreessen ) and Jim Clark, Netscape Communications Corporation published the source code browser, allowing blossom and develop projects such as Mozilla Suite (now SeaMonkey ) and Mozilla Firefox .
The second phase ( 2004 – present)
In 2003 the browser Opera has already been submitted version 6.x and distributed for free with a banner that could turn off for the money.
9 November 2004 saw the release of version 1.0 of the browser Mozilla Firefox , which has since been slowly but steadily gaining popularity. By the beginning of 2009 the market share of Firefox in the world was more than 23%, while in Europe – more than 35%.
The share of IE decreased to 67%, it ceased to be a monopolist. 2 September 2008 published a first public version of the new browser Google Chrome .
Over the next year, this browser gained wide popularity, rising to third place after the browsers Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
By the end of 2011, Google Chrome became the second most popular browser, ahead of Mozilla Firefox.
Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Reads:558Posted: May 21st, 2012 under Google Browser Size, Google Chrome, Gwt - GlobalWorldTech.
Tags: Browser Share, Browser Statistics, Browser Usage, Browser Usage Statistics, Browser Wars 2011, Browser Wars History, Internet Browser Wars, The Browser Wars