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10 Years of the World Wide Web

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the waiting-for-godot dept.

NCSA Mosaic was first released ten years ago today (oh, I guess you could mark time from the 1.0 release, but who's counting), marking the first milestone in the evolution of the graphical World Wide Web. HTTP was originally developed between 1989-1991, but didn't take off until there was a useful browser which could display inline images. You can still download old versions of Mosaic from browsers.evolt.org. So, all you folks who think you have a real handle on technological progress: what will information-access-over-electronic-networks look like in 2013?

3 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. 10 years... So similiar... by E1ven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow.. After downloading and looking at "NCSA MOSIAC FOR MS WINDOWS" it's amazing how LITTLE the browser has changed..

    All major innovations, such as URL bar, Forward/Back buttons, reload and home buttons, as well as bookmarks are allready in place. It even has a Search bar!

    90% of the "features" of a browser haven't changed in the last 10 years.. It really makes you wonder how often people re-think an interface, or if they just use and evolve what they are used to.

    I'm honestly curious, what major innovations have we seen?
    Snapback [Apple Safari]
    Tabbed browsing, and related enhancements (such as Open a group of tabs) [Mozilla, etc]

    Umm.....?

    One other feature I found interesting is that in NCSA Mosaic, there was a "annotate" function.. Presumably this let people add to a page, if the server were set properly, almost like a WIKI situation?
    Did anyone ever work with this?

    --
    Colin Davis
    1. Re:10 years... So similiar... by bheerssen · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Just for fun, here's a screenshot of your comment viewed in lynx.

      --
      (Score: -1, Stupid)
  2. Re:Still using it...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's a story behind that. As far as I recall without the help of Google...

    1) Mosaic was originally free software.
    2) A company (Mosaic Spyglass?) was formed to make it into a commercial product.
    3) Microsoft, desperate for a browser, licensed Mosaic from that company, on terms that required a certain percentage of the amount made by Microsoft from each browser sale.
    4) Microsoft then turned around and gave away the browser, Mosaic's lawyers all slapped their foreheads in collective shock, and Mosaic Spyglass never saw a red cent from the Borg.