History of the web browser - Wikipedia History of the web browser For the `` history '' feature found in most web browsers, see Web browsing history. A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. It further provides for the capture or input of information which may be returned to the presenting system, then stored or processed as necessary. The method of accessing a particular page or content is achieved by entering its address, known as a Uniform Resource Identifier or URI. This may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users easily to navigate their browsers to related resources. A web browser can also be defined as an application software or program designed to enable users to access, retrieve and view documents and other resources on the Internet. Precursors to the web browser emerged in the form of hyperlinked applications during the mid and late 1980s, and following these, Tim Berners - Lee is credited with developing in 1990 both the first web server, and the first web browser, called WorldWideWeb ( no spaces ) and later renamed Nexus. Many others were soon developed, with Marc Andreessen 's 1993 Mosaic ( later Netscape ), being particularly easy to use and install, and often credited with sparking the internet boom of the 1990s. Today, the major web browsers are Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Edge. The explosion in popularity of the Web was triggered in September 1993 by NCSA Mosaic, a graphical browser which eventually ran on several popular office and home computers. This was the first web browser aiming to bring multimedia content to non-technical users, and therefore included images and text on the same page, unlike previous browser designs ; its founder, Marc Andreessen, also established the company that in 1994, released Netscape Navigator, which resulted in one of the early browser wars, when it ended up in a competition for dominance ( which it lost ) with Microsoft 's Internet Explorer ( for Windows ). Contents 1 Precursors 2 Early 1990s : WWW browsers 3 Late 1990s : Microsoft vs Netscape 4 2000s 5 Relationships of browsers 6 Web browsers by year 7 Historical web browsers 8 See also 9 References 10 External links Precursors In 1984, expanding on ideas from futurist Ted Nelson, Neil Larson 's commercial DOS Maxthink outline program added angle bracket hypertext jumps ( adopted by later web browsers ) to and from ASCII, batch, and other Maxthink files up to 32 levels deep. In 1986, he released his DOS Houdini network browser program that supported 2500 topics cross-connected with 7500 links in each file along with hypertext links among unlimited numbers of external ASCII, batch, and other Houdini files, these capabilities were included in his then popular shareware DOS file browser programs HyperRez ( memory resident ) and PC Hypertext ( which also added jumps to programs, editors, graphic files containing hot spots jumps, and cross-linked thesaurus / glossary files ). These programs introduced many to the browser concept and 20 years later, Google still lists 3,000,000 references to PC Hypertext. In 1989, he created both HyperBBS and HyperLan which both allow multiple users to create / edit both topics and jumps for information and knowledge annealing which, in concept, the columnist John C. Dvorak says pre-dated Wiki by many years. From 1987 on, he also created TransText ( hypertext word processor ) and many utilities for rapidly building large scale knowledge systems... and in 1989, helped produce for one of the big eight accounting firms a comprehensive knowledge system of integrating all accounting laws / regulations into a CDROM containing 50,000 files with 200,000 hypertext jumps. Additionally, the Lynx ( a very early web - based browser ) development history notes their project origin was based on the browser concepts from Neil Larson and Maxthink. In 1989, he declined joining the Mosaic browser team with his preference for knowledge / wisdom creation over distributing information... a problem he says is still not solved by today 's internet. Another early browser, Silversmith, was created by John Bottoms in 1987. The browser, based on SGML tags, used a tag set from the Electronic Document Project of the AAP with minor modifications and was sold to a number of early adopters. At the time SGML was used exclusively for the formatting of printed documents. The use of SGML for electronically displayed documents signaled a shift in electronic publishing and was met with considerable resistance. Silversmith included an integrated indexer, full text searches, hypertext links between images text and sound using SGML tags and a return stack for use with hypertext links. It included features that are still not available in today 's browsers. These include capabilities such as the ability to restrict searches within document structures, searches on indexed documents using wild cards and the ability to search on tag attribute values and attribute names. Starting in 1988, Peter Scott and Earle Fogel expanded the earlier HyperRez concept in creating Hytelnet which added jumps to telnet sites... and which by 1990 offered users instant logon and access to the online catalogs of over 5000 libraries around the world. The strength of Hytelnet was speed and simplicity in link creation / execution at the expense of a centralized worldwide source for adding, indexing, and modifying telnet links. This problem was solved by the invention of the web server. The NeXT Computer which Berners - Lee used as the first web server In April 1990, a draft patent application for a mass market consumer device for browsing pages via links `` PageLink '' was proposed by Craig Cockburn at Digital Equipment Corporation ( DEC ) whilst working in their Networking and Communications division in Reading, England. This application for a keyboardless touch screen browser for consumers also makes reference to `` navigating and searching text '' and `` bookmarks '' was aimed at ( quotes paraphrased ) `` replacing books '', `` storing a shopping list '' `` have an updated personalised newspaper updated round the clock '', `` dynamically updated maps for use in a car '' and suggests such a device could have a `` profound effect on the advertising industry ''. The patent was canned by Digital as too futuristic and, being largely hardware based, had obstacles to market that purely software driven approaches did not suffer from. Early 1990s : WWW browsers A graph showing the market share of Unix vs Windows browsers The first web browser, WorldWideWeb, was developed in 1990 by Tim Berners - Lee for the NeXT Computer ( at the same time as the first web server for the same machine ) and introduced to his colleagues at CERN in March 1991. Berners - Lee recruited Nicola Pellow, a math student intern working at CERN, to write the Line Mode Browser a cross-platform web browser that displayed web - pages on old terminals and was released in May 1991. Nicola Pellow and Tim Berners - Lee in their office at CERN. In 1992, Tony Johnson released the MidasWWW browser. Based on Motif / X, MidasWWW allowed viewing of PostScript files on the Web from Unix and VMS, and even handled compressed PostScript. Another early popular Web browser was ViolaWWW, which was modeled after HyperCard. In the same year the Lynx browser was announced -- the only one of these early projects still being maintained and supported today. Erwise was the first browser with a graphical user interface, developed as a student project at Helsinki University of Technology and released in April 1992, but discontinued in 1994. Thomas R. Bruce of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School started 1992, to develop Cello. When released on 8 June 1993 it was one of the first graphical web browsers, and the first to run on Windows : Windows 3.1, NT 3.5, and OS / 2. However, the explosion in popularity of the Web was triggered by NCSA Mosaic which was a graphical browser running originally on Unix and soon ported to the Amiga and VMS platforms, and later the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms. Version 1.0 was released in September 1993, and was dubbed the killer application of the Internet. It was the first web browser to display images inline with the document 's text. Prior browsers would display an icon that, when clicked, would download and open the graphic file in a helper application. This was an intentional design decision on both parts, as the graphics support in early browsers was intended for displaying charts and graphs associated with technical papers while the user scrolled to read the text, while Mosaic was trying to bring multimedia content to non-technical users. Mosaic and browsers derived from it had a user option to automatically display images inline or to show an icon for opening in external programs. Marc Andreessen, who was the leader of the Mosaic team at NCSA, quit to form a company that would later be known as Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape released its flagship Navigator product in October 1994, and it took off the next year. IBM presented its own Web Explorer with OS / 2 Warp in 1994. UdiWWW was the first web browser that was able to handle all HTML 3 features with the math tags released 1995. Following the release of version 1.2 in April 1996, Bernd Richter ceased development, stating `` let Microsoft with the ActiveX Development Kit do the rest. '' Microsoft, which had thus far not marketed a browser, finally entered the fray with its Internet Explorer product ( version 1.0 was released 16 August 1995 ), purchased from Spyglass, Inc. This began what is known as the `` browser wars '' in which Microsoft and Netscape competed for the Web browser market. Early web users were free to choose among the handful of web browsers available, just as they would choose any other application -- web standards would ensure their experience remained largely the same. The browser wars put the Web in the hands of millions of ordinary PC users, but showed how commercialization of the Web could stymie standards efforts. Both Microsoft and Netscape liberally incorporated proprietary extensions to HTML in their products, and tried to gain an edge by product differentiation, leading to a web by the late 1990s where only Microsoft or Netscape browsers were viable contenders. In a victory for a standardized web, Cascading Style Sheets, proposed by Håkon Wium Lie, were accepted over Netscape 's JavaScript Style Sheets ( JSSS ) by W3C. Late 1990s : Microsoft vs Netscape In 1996, Netscape 's share of the browser market reached 86 % ( with Internet Explorer edging up 10 % ) ; but then Microsoft began integrating its browser with its operating system and bundling deals with OEMs. Within 4 years of its release IE had 75 % of the browser market and by 1999 it had 99 % of the market. Although Microsoft has since faced antitrust litigation on these charges, the browser wars effectively ended once it was clear that Netscape 's declining market share trend was irreversible. Prior to the release of Mac OS X, Internet Explorer for Mac and Netscape were also the primary browsers in use on the Macintosh platform. Unable to continue commercially funding their product 's development, Netscape responded by open sourcing its product, creating Mozilla. This helped the browser maintain its technical edge over Internet Explorer, but did not slow Netscape 's declining market share. Netscape was purchased by America Online in late 1998. 2000s This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( October 2017 ) At first, the Mozilla project struggled to attract developers, but by 2002, it had evolved into a relatively stable and powerful internet suite. Mozilla 1.0 was released to mark this milestone. Also in 2002, a spinoff project that would eventually become the popular Firefox was released. Firefox was always downloadable for free from the start, as was its predecessor, the Mozilla browser. Firefox 's business model, unlike the business model of 1990s Netscape, primarily consists of doing deals with search engines such as Google to direct users towards them -- see Web browser # Business models. In 2003, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer would no longer be made available as a separate product but would be part of the evolution of its Windows platform, and that no more releases for the Macintosh would be made. AOL announced that it would retire support and development of the Netscape web browser in February 2008. In the second half of 2004, Internet Explorer reached a peak market share of more than 92 %. Since then, its market share has been slowly but steadily declining and is around 11.8 % as of July 2013. In early 2005, Microsoft reversed its decision to release Internet Explorer as part of Windows, announcing that a standalone version of Internet Explorer was under development. Internet Explorer 7 was released for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista in October 2006. Internet Explorer 8 was released on 19 March 2009, for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Internet Explorer 9, 10 and 11 were later released, and version 11 is included in Windows 10, but Microsoft Edge became the default browser there. Apple 's Safari, the default browser on Mac OS X from version 10.3 onwards, has grown to dominate browsing on Mac OS X. Browsers such as Firefox, Camino, Google Chrome, and OmniWeb are alternative browsers for Mac systems. OmniWeb and Google Chrome, like Safari, use the WebKit rendering engine ( forked from KHTML ), which is packaged by Apple as a framework for use by third - party applications. In August 2007, Apple also ported Safari for use on the Windows XP and Vista operating systems. Opera was first released in 1996. It was a popular choice in handheld devices, particularly mobile phones, but remains a niche player in the PC Web browser market. It was also available on Nintendo 's DS, DS Lite and Wii consoles. The Opera Mini browser uses the Presto layout engine like all versions of Opera, but runs on most phones supporting Java MIDlets. The Lynx browser remains popular for Unix shell users and with vision impaired users due to its entirely text - based nature. There are also several text - mode browsers with advanced features, such as w3m, Links ( which can operate both in text and graphical mode ), and the Links forks such as ELinks. Relationships of browsers A number of web browsers have been derived and branched from source code of earlier versions and products. Web browsers by year A rough estimate of usage share by percent of layout engines of web browsers as of Q2 2009, see usage share of web browsers. See also : Timeline of web browsers This is a table of personal computer web browsers by year of release of major version. The increased growth of the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s means that current browsers with small market shares have more total users than the entire market early on. For example, 90 % market share in 1997 would be roughly 60 million users, but by the start of 2007 9 % market share would equate to over 90 million users. Year Web browsers 1991 WorldWideWeb ( Nexus ) 1992 ViolaWWW, Erwise, MidasWWW, MacWWW ( Samba ) 1993 Mosaic, Cello, Lynx 2.0, Arena, AMosaic 1.0 1994 IBM WebExplorer, Netscape Navigator, SlipKnot 1.0, MacWeb, IBrowse, Agora ( Argo ), Minuet 1995 Internet Explorer 1, Internet Explorer 2, Netscape Navigator 2.0, OmniWeb, UdiWWW,, Grail Arachne 1.0, Internet Explorer 3. 0, Netscape Navigator 3.0, Opera 2.0, PowerBrowser 1.5, Cyberdog, Amaya 0.9, AWeb, Voyager 1997 Internet Explorer 4.0, Netscape Navigator 4.0, Netscape Communicator 4.0, Opera 3.0, Amaya 1.0 1998 iCab, Mozilla 1999 Amaya 2.0, Mozilla M3, Internet Explorer 5.0 2000 Konqueror, Netscape 6, Opera 4, Opera 5, K - Meleon 0.2, Amaya 3.0, Amaya 4.0 2001 Internet Explorer 6, Galeon 1.0, Opera 6, Amaya 5.0 2002 Netscape 7, Mozilla 1.0, Phoenix 0.1, Links 2.0, Amaya 6.0, Amaya 7.0 2003 Opera 7, Apple Safari 1.0, Epiphany 1.0, Amaya 8.0 Firefox 1.0, Netscape Browser, OmniWeb 5.0 2005 Opera 8, Apple Safari 2.0, Netscape Browser 8.0, Epiphany 1.8, Amaya 9.0, AOL Explorer 1.0, Maxthon 1.0, Shiira 1.0 2006 Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 7, Opera 9,, SeaMonkey 1.0, K - Meleon 1.0, Galeon 2.0, Camino 1.0, Avant 11, iCab 3 2007 Apple Safari 3.0, Maxthon 2.0, Netscape Navigator 9, NetSurf 1.0, Flock 1.0, Conkeror 2008 Google Chrome 1, Mozilla Firefox 3, Opera 9.5,, Apple Safari 3.1, Konqueror 4, Amaya 10.0, Flock 2, Amaya 11.0 2009 Google Chrome 2 -- 3, Mozilla Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 8, Opera 10,, Apple Safari 4, SeaMonkey 2, Camino 2, surf, Pale Moon 3.0 Google Chrome 4 -- 8, Mozilla Firefox 3.6, Opera 10.50,, Opera 11, Apple Safari 5, K - Meleon 1.5. 4, xxxterm 2011 Google Chrome 9 -- 16, Mozilla Firefox 4 - 9, Internet Explorer 9, Opera 11.50, Apple Safari 5.1, Maxthon 3.0, SeaMonkey 2.1 -- 2.6 2012 Google Chrome 17 -- 23, Mozilla Firefox 10 -- 17, Internet Explorer 10, Opera 12, Apple Safari 6, Maxthon 4.0, SeaMonkey 2.7 - 2.14 2013 Google Chrome 24 -- 31, Mozilla Firefox 18 -- 26, Internet Explorer 11, Opera 15 -- 18, Pale Moon 15.4 - 24.2. 2, Apple Safari 7, SeaMonkey 2.15 - 2.23 2014 Google Chrome 32 -- 39, Mozilla Firefox 27 -- 34, Opera 19 -- 26, Pale Moon 24.3. 0 - 25.1. 0, Apple Safari 8, SeaMonkey 2.24 - 2.30 2015 Google Chrome 40 -- 47, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox 35 -- 43, Opera 27 -- 34, Pale Moon 25.2. 0 - 25.8. 1, Vivaldi 2016 Google Chrome 48 -- 55, Mozilla Firefox 44 -- 50, Microsoft Edge 14, Opera 35 -- 42, Pale Moon 26.0. 0 - 27.0. 3, Apple Safari 10, SeaMonkey 2.24 -- 2.30 2017 Basilisk, Google Chrome 56 -- 60, Microsoft Edge 15, Mozilla Firefox 51 -- 55.0. 2, Opera 43 -- 45, Opera Neon, Pale Moon 27.1. 0 - 27.6. 2 2018 Pale Moon 27.7. 0 - 28.0. 0 Historical web browsers This table focuses on operating system ( OS ) and browsers of the 1990 to 2000. The year listed for a version is usually the year of the first official release, with an end year being end of development, project change, or relevant termination. Releases of OS and browser from the early 1990s to before 2001 -- 02 time frame are the current focus. Many early browsers can be made to run on later OS ( and later browsers on early OS in some cases ) ; however, most of these situations are avoided in the table. Terms are defined below. Browser Years MS Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 / 8 / Server 2012 / 10 / Server 2016 XP / Server 2003 / Vista / Server 2008 2000 98 / Me NT 4.0 95 3.1 IBM OS / 2 Mac OS X ( Intel ) Mac OS X ( PPC ) Mac OS 9 Mac OS 8 System 7 ( PPC / 68k ) Linux BSD Unix ( HP - UX, Solaris ) Other Years ( OS ) -- 2009 -- current 2001 -- 2008 2000 1998 - 2000 1995 1992 2005 - current 2001 - 2007 1999 1997 1991 1994 ( 1.0 ) / 1991 1993 ( 1990s ) -- AWeb 1996 -- 2007 No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No AmigaOS MorphOS Cello 1993 -- 94 No No No No Terminated ( 1.01 a ) No Terminated ( 1.01 a ) Terminated ( 1.01 a ) No No No No No No No No No DocZilla 2003 -- 05 Terminated ( 1.0 ) Terminated ( 1.0 ) Terminated ( 1.0 ) Terminated ( 1.0 ) Terminated ( 1.0 ) Terminated ( 1.0 ) No No No No No No No Terminated ( 1.0 ) No No No IBM WebExplorer 1994 No No No No No No Unknown Terminated ( 1.1 h ) No No No No No No No No No ICab 1998 -- current No No No No No No No No Yes Dropped ( 5.1. 1 ) Dropped ( 3.0. 5 ) Dropped ( 3.0. 5 ) Dropped ( 2.9. 9 ) No No No No Internet Explorer 1995 -- current Included Dropped ( Windows XP and Server 2003, included 6.0, support dropped as of IE9, Vista and Server 2008, included 7.0, support dropped as of IE10 ) Dropped ( 6.0 SP1 ) ( included 5.0 ) Dropped ( 6.0 SP1 ) ( included 5.0 ) Dropped ( 6.0 SP1 ) ( included 2.0 ) Dropped ( 5.5 ) ( included 2.0 with Plus95 ) Dropped ( 5.0 ) No No No No No Dropped ( 3.0 ) Dropped * ( 5.01 SP1 ) No Dropped * ( 5.01 SP1 ) No IE Mac ( IE5, Tasman ) 1996 -- 2003 No No No No No No No No No Dropped ( 5.2. 3 ) Dropped ( 5.1. 7 ) Dropped ( 5.1. 7 ) No No No No No Konqueror 1996 -- current Yes Yes Dropped ( 4.8 ) No No No No No Yes Dropped No No No Yes Yes Yes No Lunascape 2004 -- current Yes Yes Dropped ( 6.1 ) No No No No No Yes Dropped No No No No No No No MacWeb 1994 -- 96 No No No No No No No No No No No Unknown Terminated ( 2.0 ) No No No No Mosaic 1993 -- 97 No No No No Terminated Terminated Terminated Terminated No No Terminated ( 3.0 ) Terminated Terminated Dropped ( 2.6 ) Dropped ( 2.6 ) Dropped ( 2.6 ) OpenVMS Mozilla ( restarted SeaMonkey ) 2002 -- 06 Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Dropped Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Dropped ( 1.2. 1 ) Dropped ( 1.0. 1 ) No Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) Terminated ( 1.7. 13 ) OpenVMS Mozilla Firefox 2004 -- current Yes Yes ( 52 ESR ) Dropped ( 12 and 10 ESR ) Dropped ( 2.0 ) Dropped ( 2.0 ) Dropped ( 1.5 ) No No Yes Dropped ( 3.6 ) No No No Yes Yes No No Netscape Navigator 9 2008 Terminated Terminated Terminated Terminated No No No No Terminated Terminated No No No Terminated ( kernel 2.2. 14 ) No No No Netscape Browser 2004 -- 07 Terminated Terminated Terminated Terminated Terminated Terminated No No No No No No No No No No No Netscape 7 Netscape 6 2000 -- 04 Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) No No Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) Dropped ( 7.02 ) Dropped ( 7.02 ) Unknown Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) Terminated ( 7.2 ) No Netscape Communicator 1997 -- 2002 Terminated ( 4.8 ) Terminated ( 4.8 ) Terminated ( 4.8 ) Terminated ( 4.8 ) Terminated ( 4.8 ) Terminated Dropped ( 4.08 ) Terminated No No Terminated ( 4.8 ) Terminated ( 4.8 ) Dropped ( 4.08 ) Dropped ( 4.77 ) Terminated Dropped ( 4.77 ) No Netscape Navigator 1994 -- 98 No No No Terminated ( 4.08 ) Terminated Terminated Terminated ( 4.08 ) Terminated No No Terminated ( 4.08 ) Dropped Dropped 3.0. 4 Terminated ( 4.08 ) Terminated ( 4.08 ) Terminated ( 4.08 ) OpenVMS OmniWeb 1995 -- current No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Dropped ( 4.0 ) Dropped Dropped No No No NeXTSTEP Opera 1996 -- current Yes Dropped ( 36 ) Dropped ( 12.02 ) Dropped ( 10.63 ) Dropped ( 10.63 ) Dropped ( 10.63 ) Dropped ( 3.62 ) Dropped ( 5.12 ) Yes Dropped ( 10.63 ) Dropped ( 7.54 u2 ) Dropped ( 6.03 ) Unknown Yes Dropped ( 12.16 ) Yes Yes UdiWWW 1995 -- 96 No No No No Terminated ( 1.2. 000 ) Terminated ( 1.2. 000 ) Terminated ( 1.2. 000 ) No No No No No No No No No No ViolaWWW 1992 No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes X11 WorldWideWeb 1991 No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No NeXTSTEP OpenStep Browser Years MS Windows 7 and later, Server 2008 R2 and later XP / Server 2003 / Vista / Server 2008 2000 98 / Me NT 4.0 95 3.1 x IBM OS / 2 Mac OS X ( Intel ) Mac OS X ( PPC ) Mac OS 9 Mac OS 8 System 7 ( PPC / 68k ) Linux BSD Unix ( HP - UX, Solaris ) Other Jump up ^ Opera dropped support for Solaris in 10.10. Jump up ^ Ødegaard, Ruari. `` The Setting Sun ''. Opera Desktop Team. Opera Software. Archived from the original on 17 February 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2010. Jump up ^ Cell phones, Nintendo DS / Wii, Symbian, Windows Mobile, iOS ( Opera Mini -- available from App Store ) ; BeOS ( dropped 3.62 ), QNX ( dropped 6.01 ) See also History of the Internet Timeline of web browsers Usage share of web browsers References Jump up ^ `` URI / Resource Relationships ''. World Wide Web Consortium. 15 December 2004. Retrieved 3 November 2016. Jump up ^ `` Tim Berners - Lee : WorldWideWeb, the first Web client ''. W3.org. Jump up ^ `` Frequently asked questions by the Press -- Tim BL ''. W3.org. Jump up ^ `` Bloomberg Game Changers : Marc Andreessen ''. Bloomberg.com. 17 March 2011. Jump up ^ `` Browser ''. Mashable. Retrieved 2 September 2011. ^ Jump up to : Vetter, Ronald J. ( October 1994 ). `` Mosaic and the World - Wide Web '' ( PDF ). North Dakota State University. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 24 August 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2010. ^ Jump up to : Berners - Lee, Tim. `` What were the first WWW browsers ? ''. World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 15 June 2010. ^ Jump up to : `` An Early History of Lynx ''. People.cc.ku.edu. 10 April 1997. Jump up ^ Mike Ciaraldi. `` John Bottoms ' short biography ''. Gbcacm.org. Jump up ^ `` Sgml - Faq ''. Jump up ^ `` United States Patent 5157783 ''. Freepatentsonline.com. Jump up ^ < The Server Guide : CERN httpd Archived 16 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ History of the Web Archived 25 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Gillies, James ; Cailliau, R. ( 2000 ). How the Web was Born : The Story of the World Wide Web. Oxford University Press. p. 6. ISBN 0192862073. CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list ( link ) Jump up ^ Jean Marie Deken. `` The Early World Wide Web at SLAC : Early Chronology and Documents ''. Slac.stanford.edu. Jump up ^ `` Lynx, Current development '', lynx.isc.org Jump up ^ Holwerda, Thom ( 3 March 2009 ). `` The World 's First Graphical Browser : Erwise ''. OSNews. Retrieved 15 June 2010. Jump up ^ Richter, Bernd ( 4 September 1996 ). `` UdiWWW : Coming soon ''. University of Ulm. Archived from the original on 9 July 1997. Retrieved 16 March 2010. Jump up ^ Bernd Richter ( 26 May 1997 ). `` UdiWWW ''. University of Ulm. Archived from the original on 24 July 1997. Retrieved 13 March 2010. Jump up ^ `` The ' link ' - Element in ( X ) HTML ''. subotnik.net. 30 March 2004. Retrieved 14 March 2010. Jump up ^ Pavlik & McIntosh, John & Shawn ( 2015 ). Converging Media Fourth Edition. New York, New York : Oxford University Press. p. 168. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 934230 - 3. Jump up ^ geri says : ( 1 January 2008 ). `` AOL to retire Netscape ''. Searchviews.com. Jump up ^ `` Market share for browsers, operating systems and search engines ''. Marketshare.hitslink.com. Jump up ^ `` Internet Explorer 8 download ''. Microsoft.com. Jump up ^ `` Opera browser : Features ''. Opera.com. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Jump up ^ `` History and Growth of the Internet ''. Internet World Stats. June 21, 2011. Retrieved July 23, 2011. Jump up ^ Brennan, Elaine ( 13 Jun 1993 ). `` World Wibe Web Browser : Ms - Windows ( Beta ) ( 1 / 149 ) ''. Humanist Archives Vol. 7. Retrieved 27 March 2010. Jump up ^ Großmann, Prof. Dr. Hans Peter. `` Department of Information Resource Management ''. University of Ulm. Retrieved 22 March 2010. Jump up ^ `` Oracle Introduces PowerBrowser ''. Oracle Corporation. 18 June 1996. Retrieved 2007 - 10 - 31. ^ Jump up to : `` Release history ''. W3C. Retrieved 2009 - 05 - 02. Jump up ^ `` Opera Software Releases 3.60 '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 1998 - 05 - 12. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 19. Jump up ^ `` Opera 4.0 for Windows Released '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2000 - 06 - 27. Retrieved 2008 - 12 - 10. Jump up ^ `` The Browser War Lights Up in Europe '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2000 - 12 - 06. Retrieved 2008 - 12 - 10. Jump up ^ `` Opera 6.0 for Windows launched after record - breaking beta '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2001 - 11 - 29. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 19. Jump up ^ `` Opera 7 Ready to Rock the Web '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2003 - 01 - 28. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 19. Jump up ^ `` Speed, Security and Simplicity : Opera 8 Web Browser Released Today '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2005 - 04 - 19. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 19. Jump up ^ `` Your Web, Your Choice : Opera 9 Gives You the Control '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2006 - 06 - 20. Retrieved 2008 - 12 - 10. Jump up ^ `` Opera redefines Web browsing yet again '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2008 - 06 - 12. Retrieved 2008 - 06 - 12. Jump up ^ `` Turbocharge your Web experience with Opera 10 '' ( Press release ). Opera Software. 2009 - 09 - 01. Retrieved 2 January 2010. Jump up ^ `` History of the Pale Moon project ''. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 05. Jump up ^ `` The world 's fastest browser for Windows '' ( Press release ). Oslo, Norway : Opera Software. 2010 - 03 - 02. Retrieved 28 March 2010. ^ Jump up to : `` General information ''. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 05. Jump up ^ `` Pale Moon : Release notes ''. Retrieved 2018 - 08 - 29. Jump up ^ `` System requirements for Opera for Windows ''. Opera Software. Retrieved 3 March 2010. Jump up ^ `` Article ID : 164539 ; Section Internet Explorer for Macintosh or Windows 3.1 ''. Microsoft. 21 November 2007. Archived from the original on 9 November 2004. Retrieved 14 May 2009. Jump up ^ `` The Netscape Archive ''. Netscape Communications. 1 March 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2009. External links Look up Web browser in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. evolt.org -- Browser Archive Web browsers Comparison lightweight History List Unix & Unix - like Timeline Usage share Features Ad filtering Augmented browsing Bookmarks Bookmarklet Live bookmark Smart Bookmarks Browser extension Browser security Browser synchronizer comparison Cookies Download manager Favicon Incremental search Plug - in Private browsing Tabs Universal Edit Button Web standards Acid tests Cascading Style Sheets HTML HTML5 JavaScript MathML SVG WebGL XHTML Protocols HTTP HTTPS OCSP SPDY SSL / TLS WebSocket WPAD Related topics BrowserChoice.eu CRL iLoo Internet suite Man - in - the - browser Mobile Web Offline reader PAC Pwn2Own Rich Internet application Site - specific browser Widget World Wide Web XML Desktop Blink - based Brave Chrome Chromium Dragon Falkon Opera Sleipnir Slimjet SRWare Iron UC Browser Vivaldi Yandex Browser Sputnik SafeZone Whale Gecko - based AT&T Pogo Avant Camino Firefox Conkeror GNU IceCat IceDragon Swiftfox Swiftweasel TenFourFox Timberwolf Tor Browser Waterfox xB Browser Galeon Ghostzilla K - Meleon Kazehakase Kirix Strata Lotus Symphony Lunascape Mozilla Beonex Communicator Classilla Netscape SeaMonkey Trident - based AOL Explorer Avant Deepnet Explorer GreenBrowser Internet Explorer Lunascape Maxthon MediaBrowser MenuBox NeoPlanet NetCaptor SlimBrowser SpaceTime UltraBrowser WebbIE ZAC Browser WebKit - based Arora Avant Dooble Epic Flock Fluid iCab Konqueror Lunascape Maxthon Midori OmniWeb Origyn Web Browser Otter Browser QtWeb rekonq Safari Shiira SlimBoat surf Torch Uzbl vimb Epiphany WebPositive xombrero Text - based ELinks Emacs / W3 Line Mode Browser Links Lynx w3m Other abaco Amaya Arachne Arena Basilisk Charon Dillo eww Gazelle HotJava IBM Home Page Reader IBrowse KidZui Microsoft Edge Mosaic Mothra NetPositive NetSurf Pale Moon Qihoo 360 Secure Browser Mobile Blink - based Android Browser Chromium Brave Chrome for Android Opera Mobile Samsung Internet Silk Firefox Focus for Android Gecko - based Firefox for Android MicroB Minimo Waterfox WebKit - based BOLT Dolphin Browser Chrome for iOS Firefox for iOS Firefox Focus for iOS Maxthon Mercury Browser Nokia Browser for Symbian Opera Coast Rockmelt Safari Steel Other Blazer CM Browser Deepfish Internet Explorer Mobile Iris Browser Konqueror Embedded Microsoft Edge NetFront Opera Mini Skweezer Skyfire Teashark ThunderHawk UC Browser Vision WinWAP Television and video game console Gecko - based Kylo Presto - based Internet Channel WebKit - based Google TV Nintendo 3DS Internet Browser Nintendo DS & DSi Browser NetFront Steam Overlay Wii U Internet Browser Other MSN TV Software no longer in development shown in italics Commons Internet portal Software portal Timeline of web browsers General Comparison lightweight History List for Unix Usage share 1990s WorldWideWeb ( Nexus ) 1991 Line Mode Browser libwww 1992 Erwise MacWWW ( Samba ) MidasWWW tkWWW ViolaWWW 1993 AMosaic Arena Cello Emacs / W3 Lynx 2 NCSA Mosaic VMS Mosaic 1994 AirMosaic Internet in a Box ANT Fresco Argo IBM WebExplorer SlipKnot Minuet Navipress Mosaic / Mosaic Netscape / Netscape Navigator Spyglass Mosaic TCP / Connect II 1995 Agora ALynx AMSD Ariadna Cyberjack eWorld Web Browser Grail Internet Explorer 1 Internet Explorer 2 Netscape Navigator 2 NetShark OmniWeb HotJava UdiWWW WebShark Cyberdog Arachne AWeb IBrowse Amaya Internet Explorer 3 Netscape Navigator 3 Opera 2 Oracle PowerBrowser tcpCONNECT4 Voyager 1997 Netscape Communicator Internet Explorer 4 Opera 2.1 1998 NeoPlanet Mozilla Application Suite Opera 3 -- 3.21 1999 iCab Internet Explorer 5 Omniweb 3 Opera 3.5 -- 3.62 2000s 2000 Beonex Communicator Galeon K - Meleon MediaBrowser Netscape 6 Opera 4 -- 4.02 2001 iCab 2.5 Internet Explorer 6 Omniweb 4 Opera 5 -- 5.12 2002 Avant Browser 7 Camino Epiphany Netscape 7 Opera 6 -- 6.1 2003 GreenBrowser Maxthon Opera 7 -- 7.3 Safari SlimBrowser Avant Browser 9 Phoenix / Firebird / Firefox Opera 7.5 -- 7.55 2005 AOL Explorer Deepnet Explorer Firefox 1.5 Opera 8 -- 8.54 Safari 2 2006 Avant Browser 11 Firefox 2 Internet Explorer 7 Opera 9 -- 9.27 2007 Maxthon 2 Opera 9.5 -- 9.64 Safari 3 SeaMonkey 1.1 2008 Google Chrome Firefox 3 Netscape Browser Netscape Navigator 9 NetSurf 1.2 2009 Avant Browser 11.7 Google Chrome 2 -- 3 Firefox 3.5 Internet Explorer 8 Opera 10 -- 10.63 Pale Moon Safari 4 SeaMonkey 2.0 2010s Google Chrome 4 -- 8 Firefox 3.6 Lunascape 6.0. 1 Maxthon 3 NetSurf 2.5 Opera 11 -- 11.64 Safari 5 2011 Google Chrome 9 -- 16 Firefox 4 -- 9 Internet Explorer 9 Lunascape 6.5 Opera 12 -- 12.17 SeaMonkey 2.1 -- 2.4 Waterfox 2012 Google Chrome 17 -- 23 Firefox 10 -- 17 Internet Explorer 10 Lunascape 6.7 Maxthon 3.4 NetSurf 2.9 Safari 6 2013 Google Chrome 24 -- 31 Firefox 18 -- 26 Internet Explorer 11 Opera 15 -- 18 Safari 7 SeaMonkey 2.15 -- 2.22 2014 Google Chrome 32 -- 39 Firefox 27 -- 34 Lunascape 6.9 NetSurf 3.1 Opera 19 -- 26 Safari 8 SeaMonkey 2.23 -- 2.31 2015 Google Chrome 40 -- 47 Firefox 35 -- 43 Lunascape 6.10 -- 6.12 Microsoft Edge 20, 25 Opera 27 -- 34 Safari 9 SeaMonkey 2.32 -- 2.39 Vivaldi 2016 Google Chrome 48 -- 55 Firefox 44 -- 50 Lunascape 6.13 -- 6.15 Microsoft Edge 38 Opera 35 -- 42 Safari 10 2017 Basilisk Brave Google Chrome 56 -- 63 Firefox 51 -- 57 Microsoft Edge 40, 41 Opera 43 -- 49 Safari 11 SeaMonkey 2.46 -- 2.49 2018 Google Chrome 64 -- Firefox 58 -- Microsoft Edge 42 - Opera 50 - Related topics 3D Markup Language for Web Aliweb ARPANET ASCII BITNET Browser wars CompuServe Elm Email File Transfer Protocol Gopher HTML HyperCard HyTelnet NCSA Telnet NLS Prodigy Teletext Telnet Usenet UUCP Videotex Viewdata Virtual Reality Markup Language Web page Whole Internet User 's Guide and Catalog World Wide Web X. 25 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_web_browser&oldid=861591021 '' Categories : History of web browsers History of software History of the Internet Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list Use dmy dates from February 2013 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from February 2008 Articles with unsourced statements from August 2009 Wikipedia articles in need of updating from October 2017 All Wikipedia articles in need of updating Talk Contents About Wikipedia Čeština Edit links This page was last edited on 28 September 2018, at 15 : 15 ( UTC ). 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Question: which early browser was the first to run on multiple computer platforms including windows
Answer: NCSA Mosaic