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The Rise and Fall of the Explorer: How Microsoft Lossed in the Browser War - Walla! technology

2022-06-28T13:02:05.719Z


The arrogance led the company to place a statue with the Explorer logo on the competitors' lawn. But she fell asleep on guard and lost the premiere


The Rise and Fall of Explorer: This is how Microsoft lost the browser war

The arrogance led the company to place a statue with the Explorer logo on the competitors' lawn.

But she fell asleep on guard and lost the premiere

Itai Byron, in collaboration with "The Technology", the technology division of Bank Hapoalim

28/06/2022

Tuesday, 28 June 2022, 09:48

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Internet Browser (Photo: ShutterStock)

In the 90's, the commercial internet was in its infancy, but even then it was clear to quite a few people that it was the next hot thing.

Since Netscape launched its web browser in 1994, millions of customers have started browsing the web through a convenient graphical interface.



Every child knows that there is no good action movie without a worthy opponent.

It is therefore not surprising that in 1995 Microsoft launched what would become Netscape's biggest rival - Internet Explorer, which recently inflated its soul (and was replaced by an edge).



The big island in the grass of



this launch was the opening shot for the browser war.

Netscape and Microsoft have resolutely released new versions of their browsers, responding to each other at a dizzying pace.

When Netscape released Javascript, which gave static websites flexible processing and logic capabilities that did not exist before, Microsoft responded and implemented CSS, which has since become the standard website design language.



The war went down to the lawn.

In 1997, when Microsoft launched version 4 of Explorer, the company held a nightly launch party.

At midnight, as they were excitedly fueled (and perhaps in other things), the workers placed a large four-meter-tall statue in the shape of the letter e (the browser icon) on the lawn at Netscape's headquarters.


Netscape employees immediately responded to the territory marking and provocation move.

They dropped the e, placed a 1.8-meter-high statue of their mascot on it - the dinosaur "Mozilla", and spray-painted the caption "Netscape Now" on the fallen statue.

At the time, Netscape still controlled 75% of the browser market.

Although this is a much better browser, it was too little and too late.

edge (Photo: ShutterStock)

Windows that changed everything at the



same time, Microsoft made a much more significant and controversial move than an amusing stretch with sculptures.

The company integrated Explorer into the Windows 95 operating system, and drank Netscape's market share, until it reached 96% in 2002.



Competitors and regulators in various countries claimed it was a monopolistic move.

It is simply impossible to compete with a browser that comes for free with your computer, already from the store.

Just before Netscape was sold, when it was defeated, it released its code base, under the Mozilla Foundation, which developed the Firefox browser.



By the end,



when competitors around were almost gone, Microsoft had minimized Explorer's development team, according to one of the engineers who worked for the company.

In 2003 the company announced that it would not be a standalone product, but simply part of the Windows operating system.



The maintenance of the browser in the following years was minimal, and support for new Internet standards was minimal.

Microsoft stopped supporting Mac, and barely supported Mobile.

This neglect led to Mozilla's Firefox growing, and at the same time Google's Chrome (which today controls about 65% of the market).



Microsoft's second browser, edge, released in 2015, was an attempt by the company to start from scratch and lead the market again.

But even though it's a much better browser, it was too little and too late.

edge holds only about 10% of the market - and in a market that is mostly based on mobile, it will be very difficult for it to rise.

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Source: walla

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