The History of Web Browsers germinated from CERN, a renowned physics institute, where Tim Berners Lee was working. The credit of development of the first web browser World Wide Web goes o this man. It was because of the need to circulate Lee's research papers among the concerned people that he decided to work on HTML and browser software. Gradually computer scientists over the world developed improved versions of web browsers which could display both textual messages and graphical images.
The most important names in the history of web browsers include:
World Wide Web:
The World Wide Web, often abbreviated as the “Web” is the largest sub networking system under the Internet. The World Wide Web functions on the basis of sub networking languages or Protocols. The protocol most important to the World Wide Web is HTTP. The WWW came into proper existence around the time Internet was born. Tim Berners Lee's attempt to provide the world with a simple networking system is the reason why the web was invented in 1990. Robert Cailliau, was the collaborator of the web server and the web projects.
Erwise:
Erwise is an important name in the history of web browsers. It was the invention of a four student group under the supervision of Ari Lemmke of Helsinky University of technology, Finland. Written specially for UNIX computers with X-windows, Erwise was web browser with a graphical user interface which could be used by non-NeXT computers. Significantly this browser program was inspired by Robert Cailliau, the collaborator of World Wide Web surfer and projects of the web. It was first launched in April, 1992.
ViolaWWW:
ViolaWWW is one of the earliest names in the history of web browsers, which was launched at almost the same time as Erwise. It launched in May, 1992 was written by Pei Wei a student of University of California . While Erwise was the first browser for supporting UNIX computers, ViolaWWW was the second. It was called ViolaWWW because Pei Wei used the Viola language to write the program.
Mosaic:
After the launch of Mosaic in 1993 it helped in popularizing the concept of World Wide Web to the general public. The credit of developing the first version of mosaic goes to Eric Bina and Marc Andreessen of National Center for Supercomputer Application (NCSA). Mosaic was hugely inspired by ViolaWWW.
Netscape Browser:
Netscape Browser or Netscape Navigator is one of the most successful web browsers that flooded the market during the 1990s. This is only an evolved version of Mosaic Browser. When Marc Andreessens's entered into business contract Silicon Graphics' founder Jim Clark, the use of the name Mosaic Communications Corporations did not go down well with Illinois University. Hence Netscape Communications Corporations was the new name given to Mosaic web browser.
Internet Explorer:
Internet Explorer or IE as it is known in short marks a milestone in the history of web browsers. It was launched in 1995 by Microsoft as a supplementary support to Windows 98. The Internet Explorer Versions were meant to revolutionize the way the world was used to the web browser.
The History of Web browsers show that they have played a very important role to play in the development and usage of internet.
