Netscape Browsers Epitaph
A Tale of the Rise, Glory and Fall of Netscape

The year is 1994. Bush is out and Clinton is in. The tech stock craze is just around the corner – and the Internet is about to be changed forever. Netscape is born. The first graphical interface (web browsers) had arrived on the scene and the face of the Internet would never be the same again.

Step forward to 1995 - and Netscape is king of the World Wide Web. Almost overnight, the Netscape browsers had obtained over 80% of the burgeoning web browser market. Then, a history-making event … Netscape, a veritable newborn company, goes public. And the crowd goes wild! Their initial float into the market is a rave success, and birth of the now famous ‘Tech Bubble’ is heralded. Along with their loveable mascot “Mozilla” (a combination of the original browser Mosaic and Godzilla), Netscape has become the reigning king of the new “Web”.

… and then came Microsoft.

Netscapes overnight success opened the eyes of many – and Mr. Gates was certainly not blind to the potential of millions … no … billions of new customers. So he built his own line of browsers – Internet Explorer. Of course, it wasn’t as sophisticated as Netscape, and it wasn’t built in a way that allowed thousands of computer sages to constantly help make improvements. Nope, it wasn’t built that way at all – but it was built into every single copy of Windows operating system. Ouch.

And so the war began. Suddenly the giant Netscape became a determined David against the Goliath called Microsoft. It was a valiant battle of lawyers, the media and – eventually the United States government. However, this became a war of attrition – and every day that the battle was fought the world was becoming more and more dependent upon Windows. And with Windows came Internet Explorer.

Welcome to 1998. The war between Netscape and Microsoft rages on – but the final casualty is started to become inevitable. Explorer’s market share has grown exponentially while Netscape’s has dwindled. Just when things looked bleakest – another giant of the Internet industry rides to the rescue. Yes! America Online, the mightiest of the mighty new Internet Service Providers, rides out into the storm and comes to Netscape’s rescue with a buyout – hurray!! The beginning of 1999 has these two great forces united. Hope for Netscape is restored and the future is looking bright. Imagine - all those AOL clients using the Netscape browser! What a wonder thing to behold! Remember those days, my friends? You don’t? Well, that’s because it never happened. In a decision which should have been an omen of executive decisions to come, AOL executives decided to forego the unleashing of their newfound fortunes and instead built a stronger bond with – Microsoft.

Sigh, then there was the great calamity of 2000. Our valiant Mozilla team continued to build, continued to strive for greater deeds – while AOL and Time-Warner danced towards each other with lust in their eyes. These two giants of industry decided that a merger was a match that could touch the heavens. But like Icarus with wings of wax, they reached too high and came crashing to the sea as the Tech Bubble which they rode upon finally burst. (This storyteller will abstain from noting which pricks caused that beautiful bubble to pop).

And in those dark days, the hopes of our valiant Netscape faded away. Their host was dying and they were a mere shadow of their former selves.

But the war was not over. While all looked bleak, there was still the final battle with Microsoft. And that battle was won! In early 2003, Microsoft finally succumbed and paid a settlement of $750 million dollars to AOL – thereby ending the war. Shortly thereafter, the once-mighty AOL granted Netscape it’s final blow – by relieving almost all of it’s staff of their jobs and announcing that no future versions of Netscape were planned.

A sad tale of rise, glory and fall – to say the least. There is one final note of hope to this story, dear listener. In a moment sympathy, the despotic king AOL granted the dying Netscape one brief glimmer of hope – freedom. The starved and dying browser was freed from the grasp of AOL and allowed to live on as a non-profit organization called the Mozilla Foundation. While this tiny group of crusaders has faint hope of making another profound impact upon the browser market again, it’s spirit and open-source architecture will live on to fight another day.