Come with us on a journey to the past, where you can learn about the people, technology, and stories behind the formation of the modern Internet.
What are you waiting for? Keep your hands on the keyboard at all times – this is Dial-back Modem.
Check out our last Dial-back Modem article on the first ARPAnet transmission.
The moment the humble web browser became big
This week we travel back in time to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on November 11, 1993.
It is here on this day that Marc Andreessen and the team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) unveiled Version 1.0 of the Mosaic web browser for the Unix X operating system.
What made the Mosaic browser special?
Mosaic, one of the first “graphical” web browsers in existence, quickly became the standard for accessing content on the web. In fact, it was noted for being the first browser to display inline images with text!
It was also one of the only browsers available on a majority of platforms, including: AmigaOS, Mac OS, Unix, and Windows. Some speculate that it single-handedly led to the internet boom of the 1990’s.
Development of Mosaic ceased on January 7th, 1997, but its founders left in 1994 to form what would be known as the Netscape Communications Corporation and the Netscape Navigator browser. That project then led to the formation of Mozilla and its Firefox browser.
Want to learn more?
We’ve used the dial-back modem to collect a few more sources on the Mosaic web browser, and Marc Andreessen and the NCSA team:
- Mosaic Communications Corporation website
- Microsoft and Spyglass lawsuit over Mosaic
- Wired covers Mosaic
What did you think of this peek through time?
We’re interested in your opinions! Let us know what you think in the comments below, or tweet@UptrendsMonitor.
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