June 15, 2022 marked the disconnection of Internet Explorer “for certain versions of Windows 10”. Our archives show that when it arrived more than 25 years ago, the browser pioneered the downfall of its competitor, Netscape Navigator.
At the dawn of 1995, Netscape Communications Corporation is the first company to launch software to facilitate Internet browsing.
On the radio show business and life on August 12, 1995, the stock market listing of Netscape has been described as an “incredible stock market story”.
“Snoopy”, “leaf” or ” surf “, The term to describe this research software designed by Netscape is not yet well defined for journalist Luc Simard.
In one minute, however, the small company, less than two years old, was selling more than 2 billion shares on the American stock market.
A sensational IPO that is even more surprising Netscape has not yet registered revenue and that the Internet, commercially speaking, has not yet proven itself in 1995.
However, financiers understood the huge potential of the Internet.
” The beauty of this software is that it allows you to research very quickly and randomly and find yourself as if you were pointing what you want into a 2500-page phone directory and instantly find the right page. “
The war of snoopers
Soon, a competitor came into the shade Netscape : Internet Explorer from Microsoft.
” The browser is the boat that allows you to browse the Internet. It lets you go the web, re-track your steps, go where you want, get your email, among other things. “
On the show Branch On September 28, 1996, journalist Stéphane Éthier compared the two browsers to columnists Patrick Chartrand and Philippe Veilleux.
80% of Internet users were used at the time Netscape Navigator. His rival Internet Explorer however, it offers many features that can make it unique, especially in terms of ease of use and multimedia tools.
The Microsoft giant was quickly accused of stifling competition in the field of web browsers. Internet Explorer is integrated into the operating system of all Microsoft computers, whose market share is 90%.
By the end of the 90s, Netscape lost grounding, but trying to diversify by investing in e-commerce.
This allows the manufacturer to be bought by AOL, as journalist Jean-Hugues Roy explained in the news bulletin noon on November 24, 1998.
However, this is the beginning of a slow difficulty for the browser Netscapewhich will definitely be abandoned by AOL in 2007 after several other versions and development under a free license.
In 2022, increasingly neglected by Internet users, Internet Explorer has a chance to embrace its younger sibling, Microsoft Edge.
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
