The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
ItÕs the end of an era for the Internet. Netscape Communications, the creator of the Netscape browser, announced that as of March 1 they would no longer be releasing updates and support software for their browser. While an Internet-based company having problems is certainly nothing new, Netscape is different. Netscape was the product that changed the web, making it open and accessible to everyone. Mosaic Communications was started in 1994 by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark. These two men had been involved with the web before that time, but they were both frustrated by it and saw the potential for it to expand. Mosaic was the first browser that was different. It allowed pictures to be built into webpages. It used a simple set of navigation buttons allowing people to get around online. Using Netscape, you no longer needed to know computer code and sets of complex commands to go online; and the Internet exploded. These two men took their company public, offering stock for sale. Initially listed to open at $14 per share, a last-minute decision was made to double the price to $28 and by the end of the first day of trading, the stock was over $75. Mozilla doubled in size each quarter for the next several years, and it is still remembered as the first company to show that money could be made by an Internet-based communications company. But over time, NetscapeÕs share of the browser market declined. When Microsoft built Internet Explorer into every edition of Windows, their control over the market skyrocketed. Soon NetscapeÕs control of the browser market fell and as of now, only about one per cent of Internet users use Netscape. Browsers have changed. They are our window onto the Internet. At first it was a large change that we simply could see pictures online. This allowed webpages to become a lot more complex. But as our bandwidth increased, we again wanted more. Soon browsers had to allow us to listen to audio files, chat with others and watch videos online. Browsers became personal and many companies now allow users to customize and personalize their products, adding their own skins and add-ons that allow us to do everything from uploading pictures to writing blog posts, to changing the entire layout of webpages using Greasemonkey. When Firefox was released in 2004, people were thrilled. Firefox was actually built and designed by many of the same people who were involved with the construction of Netscape. This browser is open source, allowing anyone to build add-ons to it. It is free and it loads pages very quickly. People pitched in their money and soon full-page advertisements were taken out in newspapers such as The New York Times promoting it as an alternative to the dominant Microsoft product. Now over 15 per cent of people use Firefox as their main browser. While in North America, most people use either Internet Explorer or Firefox, this isnÕt true around the world. Many people in Europe use Opera, while in the Far East Shiira is popular. While these browsers are similar in many ways, they are also worth your time to download and try out. They are all free, and having options is always interesting. So while Netscape is retiring, the options for people online have never been better or wider. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
