Browser War I

The First Browser War (1995?-2001?) was an internet browser conflict between Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator (otherwise known as Netscape), and resulted in the dominance of Internet Explorer and the downfall of Netscape Navigator.

Background
After the first internet browser (WorldWideWeb, known today as Nexus) launched, numerous companies launched their own internet browsers. One of them, Mosaic, dominated the browser market share for over a year after its release in 1993. Netscape stemmed from its success in 1994, and became the leading internet browser by 1995. In that same year, however, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer v1.0, and it looked as though Netscape would overshadow it just as it did all its other competitors.

1995-1997
Internet Explorer 1.0 (August 16, 1995) was first launched in disk format compatible with Windows 95, but Internet Explorer 2.0, launched in November 22, 1995, was the first recorded web browser available for free download. However, even with this shocking revelation, IE2 only helped Microsoft gain by 3-9% of browser market share by mid-1996.

At that time (August 13, 1996), Internet Explorer 3 launched, and although it didn't dominate the market, it did help Internet Explorer gain about 20% of market share.

Internet Explorer 4 was released in September 1997, and with that, Microsoft had aquired 60% market share by March 1999. With that, Internet Explorer started beating out Netscape.

To be continued...

1998-2001
Internet Explorer 5 was launched in March 1999.

Internet Explorer 6 was launched in August 27, 2001.

Aftermath
After Internet Explorer defeated Netscape, it was put on the top and became the top browser. This would carry over, and ever since, Internet Explorer has been the top browser. The only problem is, IE proved lax in providing updates after IE6 until 2006, which resulted in other browsers competing against IE (e.g. Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.) But, Firefox and Google Chrome are coming very close in the Browser War II, but IE is still holding the biggest share (nearly half).