In the beginning, humans created the World Wide Web, and they needed a way to navigate it. Several decades later, countless web browsers have served that purpose—Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, and many more. This is their story told through desktop icons.

The First Web Browsers

Tim Berners-Lee—yes, the same guy who invented the world wide web—is credited with developing the first web browser. His browser, aptly named "WordWideWeb," was released in 1990. However, the first web browser that was widely popular was NCSA Mosaic, released in 1993.

Mosaic was the first web browser that displayed images on the same page as text. Earlier browsers would show an icon where an image should be, which would open the image in a secondary application outside of the browser. Mosaic showed it all on one page, and that was a very big deal.

There were several companies that licensed Mosaic to build their own browsers, including one of the Mosaic developers, Marc Andreesen. He created Mosaic Netscape, which would later be renamed "Netscape Navigator". It was 1995, and the browser wars had begun.

Let's take a look at the history of web browsers and the ebb and flow of their presence on our computers by way of the, well, iconic icons that millions of people used every day to launch their web-centered internet experience.

1996: Netscape is King

Web use really gained steam throughout 1995. Netscape Navigator was the most popular browser, and Microsoft entered the ring with Internet Explorer 1.0—also licensed from Mosaic. Before Internet Explorer, Windows' stock browser was literally an icon labeled "The Internet."

Microsoft fervently updated Internet Explorer, and by 1996, it was nearly on par with Netscape Navigator in terms of functionality. Still, Netscape was dominating the market with over 80% of the market in early 1996—Internet Explorer had only around 10%. The tide was changing, though. By the end of 1996, Internet Explorer was already over 20%.

1998: Internet Explorer Takes Over

Microsoft released multiple versions of Internet Explorer from 1996 to 1998, and it began integrating the browser more closely with Windows. This would lead to Microsoft being taken to court by the U.S. government for illegally restricting PC makers and users from uninstalling Internet Explorer.

Regardless of Microsoft's legal troubles, its tactics had clearly worked. Along with a questionable name change to "Netscape Communicator," the popularity of Netscape's browser declined very quickly. In Q3 of 1998, Netscape and Internet Explorer were essentially the only browsers anyone used—they both had around 48% and change in market share.

By the end of 1998, Internet Explorer jumped up to 65%, while Netscape plummeted to below 40%. It would never recover. Microsoft had won the First Browser War.

2004: Firefox is Born from Netscape's Ashes

Internet Explorer dominated the browser landscape for many years, reaching a peak market share of around 95% in 2003. It was around this same time that a fresh name finally entered the browser wars—Firefox.

A non-profit called the Mozilla Foundation was formed in 2003 to create a successor to Netscape. Originally named "Phoenix," then "Firebird," and finally "Firefox," version 1.0 of the browser was released in November 2004.

Meanwhile, Apple was getting into the browser game. Netscape and Internet Explorer had been the popular browsers in the Mac ecosystem as well. In January 2003, Steve Jobs announced the Safari web browser, and the first public version was released in June 2003.

By the end of 2004, Internet Explorer was still dominating with around 90% market share. A lack of competition allowed Firefox to quickly rise into second place with only around 5%, and Safari moved into third with only 1%. The browser war was beginning to heat up again.

2008: Say Hello to Google Chrome

Firefox slowly rose in popularity in the years after its release. Apple's Safari made its way to Windows XP and Windows Vista. By the end of 2008, Internet Explorer still accounted for roughly 65% of market share, while Firefox had jumped to 20%, and Safari sat around 5%. A new contender was about to enter the ring.

Google Chrome was released as a beta for Windows in September 2008. It had already reached 1% market share when the stable version was released to the public in Dember 2008. In the following year, Google released beta versions for Mac OS X and Linux, and the browser was at 5% market share by the end of 2009.

Meanwhile, Firefox was making serious ground on Internet Explorer. For a brief period of time during the transition from Internet Explorer 7 to 8, Firefox 3.5 was the most popular browser version. However, it wouldn't be Firefox that would eventually dethrone IE.

2012: Down Goes Internet Explorer

After 14 years of dominance—thanks largely to being the default browser on Windows—Internet Explorer was finally beat out for the most used browser in 2012. It took Google Chrome only three years to pass Firefox, and less than a year later, it took down Internet Explorer too.

How did it happen? For several years, the lack of competition lead to a huge decline in development for Internet Explorer. There was only one new version of IE released between 2001-2006, and it fell far behind all the other browsers. People were more than happy to ditch IE for Firefox and Chrome.

A big reason why Chrome quickly became the most popular browser in the world was its rapid release cycle. Despite only being announced four years prior, Google was already on version 23 by the end of 2012. People also loved how fast and lightweight Chrome was compared to other browsers.

Chrome’s popularity lead to Mozilla adopting a similar release strategy for Firefox, and Apple discontinuing Safari for Windows in 2012.

2017: Chrome Continues to Dominate

By 2017, it was clear that Chrome had won what some had called the “Second Browser War.” Usage of Internet Explorer and Firefox had dropped to under 5%. Even Opera—which had been a small player for many years—passed Internet Explorer. Chrome accounted for over 50% of the market share. The closest competitor was Apple’s Safari at around 15%.

Microsoft realized Internet Explorer was essentially a dead brand. The company shifted to Microsoft Edge with the release of Windows 10 in 2015, but it only had around 1% usage by the end of 2017. The once mighty browser giant was struggling to capture a fraction of the success it had enjoyed in the First Browser War.

Meanwhile, mobile browsers had become incredibly popular. As mentioned, Chrome was the most popular browser by a landslide in 2017, but Chrome for Android was responsible for more than half of Chrome users. Safari on the iPhone and iPad had nearly six times the usage as Safari for macOS. Over the previous decade, browser usage had shifted dramatically from PCs to smartphones.

2023: Android and iPhone/Chrome and Safari

There hasn’t been much movement in the web browser space since Chrome won the Second Browser War. As of June 2023, Chrome accounts for a little over 60% market share, while Apple’s Safari is the closest competitor at a meager 20%. Microsoft has managed to move back into third place with Edge at around 5%.

The big story continues to be mobile browsing. Chrome and Safari dominating the market is thanks in large part to Android and iPhone dominating the market. Android is the most used operating system on the planet—more than Windows and macOS. Nearly all Android devices come pre-installed with Chrome, and all iPhones and iPads come pre-installed with Safari.

There has been pushpack on these practices from some government agencies around the world, but by and large, Google and Apple are able to do similar things as to what Microsoft got in trouble for back in 90s. Microsoft enjoyed success with Internet Explorer for many years because it’s hard to get people to go out of their way to use a browser that isn’t already available on their device. The same thing is happening with Chrome and Safari.

The good news is these browsers have not stagnated like Internet Explorer did when the competition declined. Chrome still receives frequent updates and new features, and Apple has turned Safari into a very solid browser.

Microsoft Edge has also become a nice browser—though the company can’t stop adding unnecessary features. Sadly, Firefox never regained the popularity it had in the early 2000s. As of June 2023, Firefox only has around 3% market share, which is similar to Opera and Samsung Internet.

There doesn’t appear to be a Third Browser War coming any time soon, but history has shown us that giants can be defeated no matter how firmly entrenched they seem. Thirty years ago, publications were proclaiming that Mosaic was the new face of the internet, ushering in a new era of World Wide Web dominance and the death of online service providers like CompuServe and Prodigy. But now Mosaic (and other early browsers like Netscape Navigator) are just as much historical footnotes as the giant companies they were proclaimed to have defeated.