What was the first freely downloadable visual web browser

In fact, the development of Mosaic was funded by the Gore Bill, introduced in by - you guessed it - Al Gore. It went through a variety of releases, and by , further development of the browser was supported by the National Science Foundation. In , Mosaic was licensed by Microsoft to create Internet Explorer. Shout out to Andreessen and Zawinski, giving the people what they want electronic mail, chatrooms, DogPile!

Mosaic incorporated the initial functionalities offered by Nexus and embedded graphics directly in web pages. When they released it, the browser was compatible with Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and Unix X Window System - the most commonly used operating systems at the time. This meant users could see images and use it on their home computers at the same time. This era of internet browsing was powered by 56k modems a few generations after baud modems which meant you might need to wait a few hours for your MP3 songs to load but Prodigy worked fine.

Many versions of web browsers have come and gone, but the features we associate with modern web browsers are from Netscape Navigator, which was built on the foundations of Mosaic. Early on, Netscape introduced progressive renderings of pages and images. This allowed the text on a page to be read before the entire page or images completely downloaded.

Netscape 1. Among other features, Netscape Navigator 2. Netscape Mail 2. Vermeer Technologies developed the FrontPage 1. Microsoft expected that extending its software portfolio to a web editor would provide a considerable advantage in the impending browser wars.

HTML 2. The editor allowed users to easily create websites without any knowledge of the basics of HTML. Lynda Weinman , a computer instructor and graphic designer, launched one of the first online libraries of training courses for web developers at lynda. Brendan Eich of Netscape designed the first version of an object-oriented JavaScript that became widely used to create interactive websites.

JavaScript later become the basis for other programming languages, such as ActionScript used in Macromedia Flash. Thanks to high-performance hardware, AltaVista was able to perform a quick full-text search across a wide range of websites. In , the first free online translator Babel Fish became part of AltaVista. In , AltaVista was taken over by Yahoo! The company's original vision was to develop advanced web navigation that would continually improve itself on the basis of user-generated data.

For this purpose, the Alexa toolbar 1. In , Alexa Internet was bought by Amazon. To archive various types of digital documents websites, music, software, video, books, etc. The Internet Archive digital library is currently the largest archive of digital documents in the world. Microsoft implemented JavaScript into Internet Explorer 3. By changing the name to JScript, Microsoft wanted to avoid potential patent litigation with Sun Microsystems, which created the Java programming language.

NET 1. The program was used to create vector animations that could be played with the FutureSplash Viewer plugin in the then popular Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. In December 18th , Macromedia released an enhanced version of this program called Macromedia Flash 1. The original HTML 3. In the HTML 3. The main goal of the WAI project is to improve the accessibility of websites and WWW services for users with disabilities. Search Engine Optimization SEO is a term indicating a set of techniques and rules that are applied to provide a better position of websites in search results for selected keywords.

The first use of the term is not fully documented. At the time of the culmination of the first browser war , Netscape released Netscape Communicator 4. It included, for example, Netscape Navigator 4. In January , Netscape announced that the subsequent versions of the software will be developed as open source projects under Mozilla and will be available to users free of charge. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 4. The distribution methods and integration of Internet Explorer into Windows subsequently became one of the subjects of legal proceedings between the US government and Microsoft over the abuse of a dominant market position.

Internet Explorer 4. Macromedia released the first version of the popular Dreamweaver 1. The first version of the Dreamweaver editor was only available for Mac OS, and in March , a version for Windows was released. The HTML 4. Jeffrey Zeldman and Brian Platz began publishing the mailing list called A List Apart , which provided readers with regular news from the world of web design, web standards, and web development.

The project gained popularity among its readers, and within a few months, A List Apart acquired more than 16, subscribers. W3C published the final recommendation for the XML 1. Extensible Markup Language XML is a general markup language designed to easily exchange information between applications and to publish documents that contain at least partially structured data. The XML language does not deal with document layout and consistently separates form and content.

Netscape Communications Corporation released the source code of the Netscape Communicator 5. In , the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization, was founded on the basis of the original project. Design is Kinky , founded by Andrew Johnstone, was one of the first design community websites. The website regularly presents graphic works, photographs, expert articles or profiles of artists who have decided to publish their work online. In , the project Design is Kinky terminated its activity.

Macromedia released the Macromedia Fireworks 1. The program was able to work with both vector and bitmap graphics and was designed specially for web designers. W3C issued official recommendations for CSS2 specification.

The second cascade style specification included a number of new features such as absolute, relative and fixed positioning of elements, z-index for element overlap, minimum and maximum width or height of elements, type of media, etc. The content of the catalog was created and maintained by a community of volunteers, and it was one of the largest internet catalogs at the time. The project ended its activity on March 17, Adobe Systems released Adobe ImageReady 1.

The program was designed to work with web graphics and to create rollover effects or short animations in the GIF format. Since version 2. A pair of Ph. Google originally started as a research project whose aim was to find relevant search results using a mathematical algorithm. The algorithm, later called PageRank , analyzed relationships between individual webpages based on their cross-references, thus assessing their importance. The name Google is a deliberate misspelling of the word googol , which refers to a very high number — 1 followed by a hundred zeros 10 The K10k webzine published graphical works of talented designers on a regular basis and became an important source of inspiration for the first generation of designers who started using the web as a visual medium.

In October , K10k terminated its activity. The browser either displays the page correctly and passes the test or it fails.

Most of the browsers of the time failed the Acid1 test. Favicon a combination of the words favorite and icon first appeared in Internet Explorer 5. The term favicon refers to a webpage icon that appeared in older browsers in the address bar next to the URL or in favorites. Originally, favicon had to be placed in the root directory of the website under the name favicon.

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 5. The browser was integrated into the Windows 98 SE operating system, and version 5. In July , Internet Explorer 5. Internet Explorer 5. The term refers to the development phase of the Web in which the content of websites is created and shared primarily by the users themselves. Typical Web 2. The WCAG 1. In addition to these rules, WCAG 1. Each checkpoint is assigned a priority on the following scale: the highest priority 1 , medium priority 2 or lower priority 3.

Adobe Systems launched Adobe Photoshop 5. The new version of Photoshop included the Adobe ImageReady 2. Another new feature of Adobe Photoshop 5. Pyra Labs launched one of the oldest blogging tools at Blogger. The new blogging platform gained a large community of users in the subsequent years. In February , Blogger.

The agency was renowned for its innovative, high-end design using Flash technology. In the field of web design, the 2Advanced Studio received many prestigious awards. The Zombo. This is ZomboCom; welcome The book became one of the basic handbooks in the field of web usability and the emerging field of user experience design UX. In , Jakob Nielsen and Donald Norman founded the Nielsen Norman Group , which engages in research, consulting and education in the field of user experience and computer interface design.

The FWA website was originally conceived as a prestigious gallery of unique and innovative websites in terms of design created with Macromedia Flash.

Due to a decline of the Flash technology, it is now possible to submit websites, mobile applications, or any creative projects regardless of the technology used. PHP 4. The Zend Engine is written as a highly optimized and powerful backend that can also be used outside PHP applications. In its beginnings, the portal brought together enthusiasts who modified the design of their computer programs and applications. At present, DeviantArt is the largest social networking site for artists and art enthusiasts.

Macromedia launched the Macromedia Flash 5. It was the first version in which ActionScript 1. Older versions of Macromedia Flash contained only sets of very simple programming commands. Thanks to ActionScript 1. In his publication, Steve Krug develops the idea that a well-designed computer program or website should allow users to perform their intended tasks in the simplest way possible, without having to think hard about how to perform them.

Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger founded Wikipedia , a multilingual internet encyclopedia. The content of the encyclopedia is shared under a free and open license of the Creative Commons. Volunteer contributors from around the world participate in the creation of Wikipedia entries. At the beginning of , Wikipedia contained articles written in nearly languages. Photographer Jason Aber and illustrator Richard May started publishing the online magazine called Pixelsurgeon.

The magazine website provided fans with regular news, interviews and tips on interesting sources from the world of design with a focus on the Internet. In November , Pixelsurgeon ended its activities due to a lack of time.

The W3C consortium released the first draft of the Media Queries specification. However, this proposal did not become part of CSS1. The CSS3 Media Queries module allows web developers to adjust the rendering of web page content according to various factors such as screen resolution.

Currently, Media Queries are one of the basic techniques used in responsive web design. Less than two months before the official release of the Windows XP operating system, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6. IE 6 was integrated into Windows XP and was also compatible with previous versions of the system down to Windows Despite a significant amount of security flaws and lack of support for web standards, Internet Explorer 6.

Together with earlier versions of IE 5. SVG has become the basic open format for vector graphics on web pages. The SVG format has been developed since by W3C and is currently fully supported by all major browsers. The Internet Archive organization launched a free digital archive of websites for the general public called the Wayback Machine. The oldest pages stored in the archive date back to In September , the Wayback Machine maintained more than billion versions of websites from various time intervals.

The website designed for Audi by the Razorfish digital agency was one of the first to modify its content based on the size of the web browser window. However, Audi. Mozilla also known as Mozilla. The basis for Mozilla 1. The technology is designed to read content and news on websites or, in general, to syndicate content. The goal of the project was to demonstrate the various possibilities of CSS in creating visual web design.

In his book, Jeffrey Zeldman explores the benefits of implementing web standards. Using standards correctly allows web designers to create accessible and user-friendly websites that work well in a wide range of browsers. Web developers Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created the first version of the open source content management system called WordPress 0. Apple introduced its own web browser, Safari 1. The browser uses the WebKit renderer to display website content.

Safari 1. Its concept was inspired by the then popular social network called Friendster. MySpace popularity skyrocketed, and by February , the network had acquired one million users. Between and , MySpace was one of the largest social networks worldwide.

In April , however, the number of unique monthly users was surpassed by Facebook, and since then the popularity of MySpace has been on a continuous decline. Joshua Schachter launched Delicious Del. One of its important innovations was the option to tag user bookmarks with any number of keywords.

In December , Delicious became part of Yahoo!. Macromedia released the Macromedia Flash MX multimedia program, which included a new version of the object-oriented programming language ActionScript 2. Ludicorp launched a photo sharing community website called Flickr. In March , Flickr was bought by Yahoo!.

Flickr is a typical representative of Web 2. Flickr was one of the first community websites which allowed tagging of photographs. In , the number of photos posted on Flickr exceeded 10 billion. The graphic elements are then placed on the website using the background-position feature.

Mozilla Corporation released a multiplatform web browser, Firefox 1. Compared with browsers from the Internet Explorer family, Firefox 1. As a result, Firefox gained major popularity among users and exceeded 1 billion downloads between and The name Firefox was allegedly derived from the English translation of the Chinese name for the red panda. The first video called "Me at the zoo" was uploaded to YouTube on 23 April, by one of the co-founders, Jawed Karim. It was a short video from the San Diego zoo.

Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian established the Reddit social network. Users on Reddit submit or share content that is then rated by the community. Content is divided into thematic categories called subreddits. The name Reddit is a play on the phrase "I read it". The Opera Mini browser could be installed on most mobile phones in common use at the time, including those that could not otherwise run a normal web browser.

The uniqueness of Opera Mini lay in the use of Small-Screen Rendering technology , where the requested pages were first data and appearance edited on Opera's servers and then displayed to the user in the Opera Mini browser only after optimization.

Alex Tew, a British student, launched the Million Dollar Homepage , which soon became an example of successful viral marketing and an Internet phenomenon. The page was a million pixels divided into a x px grid. Alex Tew offered to sell 1 pixel for a dollar, with the smallest advertising space an advertiser could buy for their link being 10x10 px.

The Million Dollar Homepage gained unprecedented popularity in a very short time, and the last pixels were sold on January 1, at an eBay auction. In April , Google took over the Urchin Software Corporation , which was developing a tool for the acquisition of statistical data about website users.

In November , Google launched an enhanced version of this tool under the name Google Analytics. Since , the basic version of this service has been available for free. Website owners can track traffic, analyze user behavior, and record conversions. Google Analytics is currently the most widely used web analytics tool.

The social network Twitter allows users to read and send short posts referred to as "tweets". The length of individual tweets was initially limited to characters. In November , the post limit was doubled to characters. On 23 August , the first hashtag appeared on Twitter , used by user Chris Messina in a tweet related to the barcamp conference.

Six years after its launch in March , the microblogging service Twitter has reached more than million active users who send million tweets per day. Sven Lennartz and Vitaly Friedman created a portal for web designers and developers called Smashing Magazine.

The portal provides regular news from the world of web design, user experience, or web development.