What the future of browsers looked like when IE6 was released

http://www.t3.org/tangledwebs/06/tw0605.html

by jeffwidman • 15 years ago

109 25 15 years ago

t3.org

JacobAldridge• 15 years ago

2001 (in case you missed the date): "The browser war is over, and Microsoft has won. Now comes the occupation."

2004-2011: Viva la resistance!

MatthewPhillips• 15 years ago

2004-2008 = the resistance 2008 - present = the second great browser wars

erez3• 15 years ago

I simply can't think of the situation today as a browser war. In the late 90 there was the .com boom, making it feel like whoever wins the war will dominate the world, it was a more fuzzy world in terms of standards, so a lot of sites had to choose whether to make their site Netscape-friendly or IE-friendly, since it was almost impossible to do both. Add to that Microsoft strong-arm tactics and the existence of Netscape as a single-product commercial entity and you got a much messier, much dirtier war with higher stakes.

Today, the stakes are not that high. Most of the dirty fights are at the search and user details area. The standards are more strict and developers are fast to call on either side deviations. Lock-in is harder, and, to be honest, it's pretty obvious that whomever the "winner" will be, it won't give them the 99% dominance that IE had at about 2001.

lewispb• 15 years ago

How different a place the web would be today if Microsoft had truly embraced innovation back then, instead of focusing solely on peripheral income streams. I think we can truly be grateful to the hard work of so many involved in the Mozilla Project as well as Webkit, but it's a shame it took those projects, and 10 long years for Microsoft to start really even talking web standards.

random422• 15 years ago

A big reason of Mozilla/Firefox surviving is, Microsoft taking a 5 year long vacation from releasing web browser. (between IE6 (2001) - IE7(2007)).

sjmulder• 15 years ago

Or it’s the other way around. Complacent Microsoft not working on a new, improved version because there is no perceived threat.

cooldeal2• 15 years ago

Release of IE was tied to the OS. Since Vista was delayed, IE too got delayed.

code_duck• 15 years ago

I don't see how that made the difference. If IE7 was released in 2004 or 2005, at best it would have been IE7 as we know it, and more likely would have been something halfway to IE7, and not particularly compelling - not unlike IE7.

As usual people who didn't care would use IE, and people seeking something better still would have used Firefox. Reading from their track history of lack of effort, innovation and overall mediocrity, there's no way MS could have killed Firefox and now Chrome by releasing some other schlonky IE.

obeattie• 15 years ago

Oh, I love this: "Smart Tags caused immediate and vocal backlash among webmasters and content creators who sill harbor quaint notions that they, not Microsoft, should be in control the content and advertising at the sites they create."

mattdeboard• 15 years ago

I am going to assume he was being a bit sarcastic there.

danvoell• 15 years ago

"The browser war is over, and Microsoft has won. Now comes the occupation." What a great line, thank goodness for competition! I will think of it every someone says "but somebody is already doing that"

Indyan• 15 years ago

"Smart Tags caused immediate and vocal backlash among webmasters and content creators who sill harbor quaint notions that they, not Microsoft, should be in control the content and advertising at the sites they create."

A quaint notion indeed. It really was a different world back then.

swah• 15 years ago

Thanks, Mozilla.

abhishekpathak• 15 years ago

Kind of sad to see the champion of the revolution in those old days,Firefox,going down steadily to Chrome,the new,talented kid on the block.

yuhong2• 15 years ago

After IE6 was released, WaSP took a gentle leave of absence, claiming that "Browser makers are no longer the problem": http://archive.webstandards.org/

devicenull• 15 years ago

Is it just me or does this site waste 80% of the browser with whitespace? I've never seen such big margins.

What the future of browsers looked like when IE6 was released

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