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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Full Steam Ahead

In the summer of 1996, Microsoft released version 3.0, which seemingly overnight triggered a mass exodus from Netscape’s browser to Internet Explorer. The Internet community became polarized on the issue of which web browser had the most features and the most support for the latest Internet technologies, as well as which one more closely adhered to RFCs and other Internet standards.  Internet Explorer 3 boasted a wide variety of features, including support for video and audio multimedia, Java applets, cascading style sheets, and Microsoft’s ActiveX controls.  Ever since the release of version 3, the browser wars have raged on.  But the debate was nearly made moot by one distinguishing aspect – Netscape charged nearly $50 for its web browser, while Microsoft gave Internet Explorer away for free.
One of the primary reasons behind the success of Microsoft Office, was the fact that it was a bundled suite of products.  Microsoft felt that, by applying this practice to Internet Explorer, they would be able to duplicate this success.  So they introduced additional integrated components when they released version 3, such as Internet Mail and News 1.0, a Windows Address Book, and later on, Microsoft NetMeeting and the Windows Media Player.  As a result of these new compelling features, version 3’s popularity skyrocketed.  This new and quickly increased popularity had the unintended side-effect of putting Microsoft and it’s web browser under intense public scrutiny.

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