By Carolyn Duffy Marsan
Network World
October 9, 2009

Web Browser Milestones

The Web browser turns 15 on Oct. 13, 2009 – a key milestone in the history of the Internet. That’s when the first commercial Web browser – eventually called Netscape Navigator – was released as beta code. While researchers including World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and a team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications created Unix browsers between 1991 and 1994, Netscape Navigator made this small piece of desktop software a household name. By allowing average users to view text and images posted on Web sites, Netscape Navigator helped launch the Internet era along with multiple browser wars, government-led lawsuits and many software innovations. Here are 15 highlights in the history of the Web browser.

January 1, 1997

Opera introduced, targets mobile devices
Based in Norway, Internet Opera Software released its first Web browser for Windows, dubbed Opera 2.1. Opera has been a minor player in the Web browser market since then; it currently has 1.1% of the market, according to Janco Associates. Version 10 was released on Sept. 1, 2009. Opera Software claims 40 million users on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. Its mobile version - Opera Mini - claims 30 million users, including many BlackBerry users.

February 23, 1998

Netscape creates open source Mozilla Project
Netscape created the Mozilla Organization as an open source developer that would provide a free version of its browser. By February 1998, Netscape – which had 28% browser market share – had been vanquished by Microsoft – which had 69% market share – in the first browser war. In July 2003, the Mozilla Organization would morph into the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit. In 2005, the for-profit Mozilla Corp.- was created and would eventually deliver the popular Firefox browser.

May 18, 1998

Feds sure Microsoft over bundled browser
The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust case against Microsoft alleging that Microsoft abused monopoly power by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser into its Windows operating system. Working for DOJ, attorney David Boies (shown here) won the trial, and the verdict was upheld on appeal. DOJ reached a settlement with Microsoft in 2001, requiring Microsoft to share its APIs with other companies. Microsoft is required to meet this obligation until November 2009.

November 24, 1998

AOL buys Netscape
AOL announced plans to buy Netscape for $4.2 billion. The deal was a stock-for-stock transaction that ended up being worth more than $10 billion when it closed in March 1999. The merger required approval by the U.S. Department of Justice on antitrust grounds. AOL was not successful at helping Netscape regain market share for Navigator. In December 2007, AOL announced that it would no longer support Netscape Web browsers.