scribe the meaning of the knowledge on the Internet.
In 1993, Marc Andreessen developed the Mosaic
browser at the University of Illinois supercomputer
center. This became the most popular browser of the
early 1990’s. In 1994, he and Jim Clark founded
Netscape Communications Corporation to develop
a commercial browser that would capture much
of the flavor of Mosaic. The Netscape Navigator
browser replaced Mosaic as the most popular
browser in the later 1990’s. Microsoft jumped into
the browser business in 1994 by modifying the Spy-
glass Mosaic browser. In 1995, Microsoft bundled its
browser, then called Internet Explorer (IE), with
Windows 95, and by 1999 IE had become the world’s
most popular browser.
In 1995, CompuServe and other Internet service
providers (ISPs) started to provide access to the
Web. While these ISPs had their own browsers, most
customers were able to use Netscape Navigator or IE
to access the Web. When individuals got access to the
Web at home, as well as at their businesses and orga-
nizations, its popularity exploded and it became an
information superhighway.The Animated Web One of the major improve-
ments to the Web in the 1990’s was the introduction
of animation. CompuServe introduced the graphics
interchange format (GIF) file in 1987 to put color
images on its message boards. In 1989, the company
introduced the GIF89 file, which stored multiple im-942 World Wide Web The Nineties in America
Netscape Navigator’s home page in August, 1995. Though Netscape surpassed Mosaic as the most popular Web browser, Microsoft’s Inter-
net Explorer would become the preferred browser by 1999.(AP/Wide World Photos)