Blog 12: Google opens up new front in browser wars with Chrome

Google opens up new front in browser wars with Chrome
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080901-google-opens-up-new-front-in-browser-wars-with-chrome.html

Google, the most dominant company in IT today (sorry, Microsoft) recently released its own browser Chrome. As that popular idiom goes, the jury is still out. Nevertheless it has gotten some very good reviews, and, in time could become a contender in the infamous "Browser wars".

Let's look at a brief history of "browser wars". The first widely used browser was Mosaic in 1993. Sure there were other browsers such as Cello, Lynx, Arena, and AMosaic, but not many people knew of them.

The big browser release was Netscape Navigator in 1994. There were other browser releases that year, such as IBM Web Explorer, SlipKnot 1.0, MacWeb, IBrowse, Argo, and Minuet, but they had a very limited audience.

Netscape became the dominant browser and this led to one of the biggest IPOs in history and essentially kick started the so-called Dot-com boom.

Microsoft, of course, was not far behind. It released Internet Explorer in 1995. Most people considered Internet Explorer an inferior product. I was working at Microsoft at the time, and most of the engineers there preferred Netscape, they even bragged about buying Netscape stock!

Alas, as the brief history of the PC shows, Microsoft can be stubborn. Microsoft worked on making Internet Explorer better and eventually it toppled Netscape's dominance. When Netscape was sold to AOL in 1998, its browser had fallen way down in market share.

Today, of course, Microsoft still dominants the browser market, but it does have competitors (some say better alternatives). Browsers such as Opera, Firefox, and Safari have become popular, especially amongst the anti-Microsoft crowd.

Google, with its new browser, may someday topple Microsoft. Google represent the new school when it comes to technology. Microsoft, the old school.

References:

Browser Wars II: The Saga Continues

http://www.evolt.org/article/Browser_Wars_II_The_Saga_Continues/25/60181/

Browser Wars, Again
http://gigaom.com/2008/04/01/browser-wars-again/