For most, the internet is just a place you go to look up information, you don’t normally think about how it became so easy to do research.

The ability to surf the web effortlessly has been around for many years. When the World Wide Web or as we more commonly know it as “www” the prefix to most websites was discovered by Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist situated in London nearly 30 years ago. 

He also created 3 crucial technologies, that are integrated into modern internet today which are:

1. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

2. Uniform Resource Identifier (UFI)

3. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

We have seen incredible growth of internet browsers, cloud programs, and web design overall, over the years. It is fascinating to look at the timeline of where it all started.  

Our intentions for web browsers are to continue to make them something we can look back on to see how far they’ve come. While also making it easy to discover what may happen with them in the future. 

Now, What is a Web Browser and How Does it Work?

In short, a web browser is a utility that can be utilized to provide access to websites.  Browsers we know well are:

• Google Chrome

• Mozilla Firefox

• Apple Safari

• Microsoft Internet Explorer

The web browser’s main job is to deliver HTML code from the web design to the markup web pages. This process all begins when you type a website’s URL into the search bar of the browser.

Next, the browser will load to locate the website’s page information from the server. Once the information is received the browser will notify the server and display it on the web page. As a user you will then be able to read and react to the website. 

Now, here are the browsers throughout the years:

1989 – The World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee

• His plan was to discover a solution for retrieving information from several computers

• March of 1989 he released a document called “Information Management: A Proposal”, little did he know it would eventually be the internet

1993 – Mosaic is Developed by the University of Illinois

• Created for use of Supercomputing Applications

• Mosaic stood out from others in the bunch because it had the features to display text and images consecutively

• Mosaic was also accessible to both IT tech and normal consumers

1994 – Opera is Developed and the World Wide Web Consortium (WWWC)

• Opera was created from a portion of a research project at Telenor (a large telecommunication company in Norway back then)

• It didn’t get released to the public eye until the second edition

• Surprisingly, Opera is still used today, at Version 62

• The WWWC was also discovered during 1994 – this allowed for life changing concepts and ideas that were created are continuously utilized today

• The WWWC was created by Tim Berners-Lee through MIT

1996-1999 – Internet Explorer Version 3 Rises in Popularity

• Internet Explorer Version 3 – rose to fame, because it had the power to support mixed media applications and e-mail.

• It was the world’s most used web browser in 1999

2003 – Apple Safari is introduced by Steve Jobs

• Released with the debut of Mac OS X Panther, and has been a part of every OS X operating system ever since

• Prior to Safari, provided with Mac Computers was Netscape Navigator and Cyberdog and then eventually Internet Explorer for Mac

2004 – Internet Explorer vs. Firefox

• Firefox monopolized as a preferred browser in 2004, as consumers started to get frustrated since Internet Explorer didn’t have good security features among other things

• Firefox is an open-source solution created by Netscape solving hundreds of Internet browser headaches

2008 – the Rise of Google Chrome

• Started by Google, with program code called “Chromium”

• The goal of Chromium was to produce a product that is safer and more efficient for consumers to endure the internet

• In 7 years by 2015, Chrome was declared the most popular web browser with 64.9% of consumers worldwide primarily using Chrome

2015-2016 – Microsoft Edge and Vivaldi

• Microsoft Edge, the attempt of a comeback for Internet Explorer

• Originally released with Windows 10 and Xbox One back in 2015

• Vivaldi – is a multi-platform browser, as an alternative to Opera

The Future of Browsers

• Google Chrome continues to be the world’s most preferred web browser with a market share of 60.1%

• Safari is the next best browser with a market share of 12.7%

• The market share of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge is 6.8%

When choosing what web browser will work the best for you, is a difficult decision because there are so many options. Even more, implementing a web browser with proper security features can be enduring and time-consuming.

We’re able to help at ISU Corp. Reach out today!