Andrew Watson

The End of an Era – Netscape Browser

Posted on 01. Mar, 2008 by Andrew Watson in Software

Today marks the end of an era. Those of us who used the internet between the late 1990′s and early 2000′s will remember the fateful browser wars. They saw Microsoft totally dominate the browser market and Netscape slowly lose more and more market share.

For me though, Netscape was about more than the browser war… in the late 1990′s it was the first browser that I used… it was the browser that got me and hundreds of others like me online. 

Over the past decade, it went from 90% marketshare to 0.6% market share, and in a market where web browsers are free, AOL just wasn’t able to find a way to make money on the project anymore. Netscape 9 was a really decent browser, and the name has been etched into my mind for ever now, as part of the evolutionary canvas of the internet.

Perhaps Netscape defines the evolutionary ability of the internet – from industry leader to nothing in 10 years, and a legacy that saw the birth of Mozilla and Firefox.

RIP Netscape.

Tags: browsers, netscape