Web Browsers

By:
Ahmed Hussain
 Web Browsers
A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is a
software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing
information resources on the World Wide Web. An information
resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier
(URI/URL) and may be a web page, image, video or other
piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users
easily to navigate their browsers to related resources.
Although browsers are primarily intended to use the World Wide
Web, they can also be used to access information provided by
web servers in private networks or files in file systems.
The major web browsers are Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google
Chrome, Opera, and Safari.
 History of Web
Browser.
The first web browser was invented in 1990 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
It was called WorldWideWeb and was later renamed Nexus. The
first commonly available web browser with a graphical user
interface was Erwise. The development of Erwise was initiated by
Robert Cailliau.

In 1993, browser software was further innovated by Marc Andreessen with

the release of Mosaic, "the world's first popular browser", which made the
World Wide Web system easy to use and more accessible to the average
person. Andreesen's browser sparked the internet boom of the 1990s. The
introduction of Mosaic in 1993 one of the first graphical web browsers
led to an explosion in web use. Andreessen, the leader of the Mosaic team
at NCSA, soon started his own company, named Netscape, and released the
Mosaic-influenced Netscape Navigator in 1994, which quickly became the
world's most popular browser, accounting for 90% of all web use at its
peak.
 History of Web Browser.
(Cont.)

Microsoft responded with its Internet Explorer in 1995, also

heavily influenced by Mosaic, initiating the industry's first
browser war. Bundled with Windows, Internet Explorer gained
dominance in the web browser market; Internet Explorer usage
share peaked at over 95% by 2002.

Opera debuted in 1996, it has never achieved widespread use,

having less than 2% browser usage share as of February 2012
according to Net Applications. Its Opera-mini version has an
additive share, in April 2011 amounting to 1.1% of overall
browser use, but focused on the fast-growing mobile phone web
browser market, being preinstalled on over 40 million phones. It
is also available on several other embedded systems, including
Nintendo's Wii video game console.
 Different Web
Browsers
Google Chrome.
Mozilla Firefox.
Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Apple Safari.
Opera.
Netscape Navigator.
 About Chrome.

Developed by Google Inc.

Initial release September2,2008
Written in Assembly,C,C++,Java,
JavaScript,Python.
OS Android, iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows
Engines Blink(WebKiton iOS),V8
Platform x86,x64,32-bitARM
Available in 53 language
License is Freewareunder Google Chrome Terms of
 About Chrome.(Cont.)
Google Chromeis afreewareweb browser developed
byGoogle. It used theWebKitlayout engineuntil version 27
and, with the exception of its iOS releases, from version 28 and
beyond uses the WebKitforkBlink. It was first released as
abeta versionforMicrosoft Windowson September 2, 2008,
and as a stable public release on December 11, 2008.
As of July 2014,StatCounterestimates that Google Chrome has a
45% worldwideusage share of web browsersso this estimate
indicates it is the most widely used web browser in the world.
In September 2008, Google released the majority of Chrome's
source code as anopen-sourceproject calledChromium, on
which Chrome releases are still based. A notable component
that is not open source is the built-in Flash player.
 Development of Chrome.

Chrome was assembled from 25 different code libraries from Google

and third parties such asMozilla'sNetscape Portable
Runtime,Network Security Services,NPAPI,Skia Graphics
Engine,SQLite, and a number of other open-source projects.
TheV8JavaScriptvirtual machinewas considered a sufficiently
important project to be split off (as was Adobe/Mozilla'sTamarin)
and handled by a separate team inDenmarkcoordinated byLars
BakatAarhus.
According to Google, existing implementations were designed "for
small programs, where the performance and interactivity of the
system weren't that important", butweb applicationssuch
asGmail"are using the web browser to the fullest when it comes
toDOMmanipulations andJavaScript", and therefore would
significantly benefit from a JavaScript engine that could work faster.
 Development of Chrome.
(Cont.)

Chrome uses theBlinkrendering engine to display web pages.

Based on WebKit, Blink only uses WebKit's "WebCore"
components while substituting all other components, such as its
own multi-process architecture in place of WebKit's native
implementation.
Chrome is internally tested withunit testing, "automated user
interface testing of scripted user actions",fuzz testing, as well
as WebKit's layout tests (99% of which Chrome is claimed to
have passed), and against commonly accessed websites inside
the Google index within 2030 minutes.
Google createdGearsfor Chrome, which added features forweb
developerstypically relating to the building of web applications,
including offline support.However, Google phased out Gears in
favor ofHTML5.
 Chromes Features.
Google Chrome aims to be secure, fast, simple and stable. There
are extensive differences from its peers in Chrome's minimalistic
user interface, which is a typical of modern web browsers. For
example, Chrome does not renderRSSfeeds. One of Chrome's
strengths is its application performance andJavaScriptprocessing
speed, both of which were independently verified by multiple
websites to be the swiftest among the major browsers of its
time.Many of Chrome's unique features had been previously
announced by other browser developers, but Google was the first
to implement and publicly release them.For example, a
prominentgraphical user interface(GUI) innovation, the merging
of theaddress barand search bar (theOmnibox), was first
announced byMozillain May 2008 as a planned feature forFirefox.
BothInternet Explorer 9andSafari(version 6) have since merged
the search and address bar.
 Bookmarks and settings synchronisation

Chrome allows users to synchronize their

bookmarks, history, and settings across
all devices with the browser installed by
sending and receiving data through a
chosen Google Account, which in turn
updates all signed-in instances of
Chrome. This can be authenticated
either through Google credentials, or a
sync passphrase.
 Chrome Security.
Chrome periodically retrieves updates of twoblacklists(one
forphishingand one formalware), and warns users when they attempt
to visit a site Chrome sees as potentially harmful. This service is also
made available for use by others via a free publicAPIcalled "Google
Safe BrowsingAPI".
Chrome uses a complex process-allocation model to allocate
differenttabstofitinto differentprocessesto prevent what happens in
one tab from affecting what happens in others.Following theprinciple
of least privilege, each process is stripped of its rights and can
compute, but cannot interact with sensitive areas (e.g. OS memory,
user files) this is similar to the "Protected Mode" used byInternet
Explorer 9and10. TheSandbox Teamis said to have "taken this
existing process boundary and made it into ajail." This enforces
acomputer security modelwhereby there are two levels ofmultilevel
security(userandsandbox) and thesandboxcan only respond to
communication requests initiated by theuser.On Linux sandboxing
uses theseccompmode
 Chrome Security.(Cont.)
Google introduced download scanning protection in
Chrome 17. Chrome tries to prevent malware with
Sandboxing. The Sandbox monitors each and every
webpage tab separately. When the user opens a
malicious website, Chrome contains the malware in
an area called a sandbox. The other tabs that the
user has open are unaffected. When the user closes
the bad page, the malware goes with it leaving
other tabs and the computer unaffected. Chrome
also automatically updates to the latest security
features to maximize user protection from malware.
 Privacy mode

Theprivate browsingfeature
calledIncognitomode prevents the
browser from permanently storing
anyhistoryinformation
orcookiesfrom the websites visited.
Incognito mode is similar to the
private browsing feature in other web
browsers.
 Mozilla Firefox

Developed by Mozilla Foundationand contributors,

Mozilla Corporation
Initial release September23, 2002.
Written in C++,JavaScript, C, Cascading Style
Sheets,XUL,XBL
Operating system Windows,OS X,Linux,Android,
Firefox OS,FreeBSD, NetBSD,OpenBSD,OpenIndiana.
Engines Gecko,SpiderMonkey .
Available in 79 languages
License MPL
 About Firefox.
Mozilla Firefox(known simply asFirefox) is afree and
open-sourceweb browserdeveloped forWindows,OS X, and
Linux, with amobileversion forAndroid, by theMozilla
Foundationand its subsidiary, theMozilla Corporation.
Firefox uses the Geckolayout engineto render web pages,
which implements current and anticipatedweb standards.
As of February 2014, Firefox has between 12% and 22% of
worldwideusage, making it, per different sources, the third
most popular web browser.According to Mozilla, Firefox
counts over 450 million users around the world.The browser
has had particular success inIndonesia,Iran,Germany,
andPoland, where it is the most popular browser with 55%,
46%,43%,and 41%of the market share, respectively.
 Firefoxs Features.
Features includetabbed browsing,spell checking,incremental
find,live bookmarking,Smart Bookmarks, adownload
manager,private browsing, location-aware browsing (also
known as "geolocation") based on aGoogleservice and an
integrated search system that uses Google by default in
most localizations. Functions can be added through
extensions, created bythird-party developers,of which
there is a wide selection, a feature that has attracted many
of Firefox's users.
Additionally, Firefox provides an environment for web
developers in which they can use built-in tools, such as the
Error Console or theDOM Inspector, or extensions, such
asFirebug.
 Firefox Security.
Firefox uses asandbox security model,and limits scripts
from accessing data from other web sites based on
thesame-origin policy. It usesSSL/TLSto protect
communications with web servers using
strongcryptographywhen using theHTTPSprotocol. It also
provides support for web applications to usesmartcardsfor
authentication purposes.
The Mozilla Foundation offers a "bug bounty" (up to 3000
USD cash reward and a Mozilla T-shirt) to researchers who
discover severe security holes in Firefox.Official guidelines
for handling security vulnerabilities discourage
earlydisclosure of vulnerabilitiesso as not to give potential
attackers an advantage in creating exploits.
 Firefox Security.(Cont.)
Because Firefox generally has fewer publicly known unpatched
securityvulnerabilitiesthanInternet Explorer,improved security is often
cited as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox.The
Washington Postreported that exploit code for known critical unpatched
security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer was available for 284 days in
2006. In comparison, exploit code for known, critical security
vulnerabilities in Firefox was available for nine days before Mozilla issued a
patch to remedy the problem.
A 2006Symantecstudy showed that, although Firefox had surpassed other
browsers in the number of vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities that year
through September, these vulnerabilities were patched far more quickly
than those found in other browsers Firefox's vulnerabilities were fixed on
average one day after the exploit code was made available, as compared
to nine days for Internet Explorer. Symantec later clarified their statement,
saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities than Internet
Explorer, as counted by security researchers.
 Licensing.

Firefoxsource codeisfree software, with most of it being released under theMozilla

Public License(MPL).This license permits anyone to view, modify, and/or
redistribute the source code. As a result, several publicly released applications
have been built from it, such asNetscape,Flock,Miro,Iceweasel, andSongbird.
In the past, Firefox was licensed solely under the MPL, then version 1.1,which
theFree Software Foundationcriticized for beingweak copyleft, as the license
permitted, in limited ways, proprietaryderivative works. Additionally, code only
licensed under MPL 1.1 could not legally be linked with code under theGPL.To
address these concerns, Mozilla re-licensed most of Firefox under thetri-
licensescheme of MPL 1.1, GPL 2.0, orLGPL2.1. Since the re-licensing,
developers were free to choose the license under which they received most of the
code, to suit their intended use: GPL or LGPL linking and derivative works when
one of those licenses is chosen, or MPL use (including the possibility of proprietary
derivative works) if they chose the MPL. However, on January 3, 2012, Mozilla
released the GPL-compatible MPL 2.0,and with the release of Firefox 13 on June 5,
2012, Mozilla used it to replace the tri-licensing scheme.
The crash reporting service was initially closed source, but switched with version 3
from a program calledTalkbackto the open sourceBreakpad& Socorro.
 Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Original author Thomas Reardon.

Developed by Microsoft.
Initial release August16, 1995.
Written in C++.
Engines Trident,Chakra.
Available in 95 languages.
License Proprietary,requiresa
Windows license.
 About IE.
Internet Explorer is one of the most widely used web
browsers, attaining a peak of about 95%usage
shareduring 2002 and 2003.Its usage share has since
declined with the launch ofFirefox(2004) andGoogle
Chrome(2008), and with the growing popularity of
operating systems such asOS X,LinuxandAndroidthat
do not run Internet Explorer. Estimates for Internet
Explorer's overall market sharerange from 27.4% to
54.13%, as of October 2012(browser market share is
notoriously difficult to calculate). Microsoft spent
overUS$100 millionper year on Internet Explorer in the
late 1990s,with over 1000 people working on it by 1999.
 About IE.(Cont.)
Since its first release, Microsoft has added features and technologies
such as basictabledisplay (inversion .5),
XMLHttpRequest(inversion 5), which aids creation ofdynamic web
pages; andInternationalized Domain Names(inversion 7), which
allow Web sites to have native-language addresses with non-
Latincharacters. The browser has also received scrutiny
throughout its development for use of third-party technology (such
as thesource codeofSpyglass Mosaic, used without royalty in
early versions) and security and privacyvulnerabilities, and
boththe United Statesandthe European Unionhave alleged that
integration of Internet Explorer with Windows has been to the
detriment of other browsers.
The latest stable release isInternet Explorer 11, with an interface
allowing for use as both a desktop application, and as a Windows
8application.
 About IE.(Cont.)
Versions of Internet Explorer for other operating systems have
also been produced, including anXbox 360version called
Internet Explorer for Xbox and an embedded OEM version
called Pocket Internet Explorer, later rebrandedInternet
Explorer Mobile, which is based on Internet Explorer 9 and
made forWindows Phone,Windows CE, and previously, based
on Internet Explorer 7 forWindows Mobile. It remains in
development alongside the desktop versions.Internet Explorer
for Macand Internet Explorer for UNIX(SolarisandHP-UX) have
been discontinued.
On April 26, 2014, Microsoft issued a security advisory relating to
a vulnerability that could allow "remote code execution" in
Internet Explorer versions 6 to 11.The vulnerability was
resolved with a security update May 1, 2014
 IEs Features.

Internet Explorer has been designed to

view a broad range of web pages and
provide certain features within the
operating system, includingMicrosoft
Update. During the heyday of
thebrowser wars, Internet Explorer
supersededNetscapeonly when it
caught up technologically to support
the progressive features of the time.
 IEs Features.
Favicon:
Support forfaviconswas first added
inInternet Explorer 5. Internet
Explorer supports favicons inPNG,
staticGIFandnative Windows
iconformats. In Windows Vista and
later, Internet Explorer can display
native Windows icons that have
embedded PNG files.
 IEs Features.
Group Policy

Internet Explorer is fully configurable usingGroup Policy.

Administrators ofWindows Server domains(for domain-
joined computers) or the local computer can apply and
enforce a variety of settings on computers that affect the
user interface (such as disabling menu items and individual
configuration options), as well as underlying security
features such as downloading of files, zone configuration,
per-site settings, ActiveX control behavior and others.
Policy settings can be configured for each user and for
each machine. Internet Explorer also supportsIntegrated
Windows Authentication.
 IE Security.
Internet Explorer uses a zone-basedsecurityframework that groups sites
based on certain conditions, including whether it is an Internet- or
intranet-based site as well as a user-editable whitelist. Security
restrictions are applied per zone; all the sites in a zone are subject to
the restrictions.
Internet Explorer 6 SP2 onwards uses theAttachment Execution
ServiceofMicrosoft Windowsto mark executable files downloaded from
the Internet as being potentially unsafe. Accessing files marked as such
will prompt the user to make an explicit trust decision to execute the
file, as executables originating from the Internet can be potentially
unsafe. This helps in preventing accidental installation of malware.
Internet Explorer 7 introduced the phishing filter, that restricts access
tophishingsites unless the user overrides the decision. With version 8,
it also blocks access to sites known to hostmalware. Downloads are
also checked to see if they are known to be malware-infected.
 IE Security.(Cont.)
InWindows Vista, Internet Explorer by default runs in what is calledProtected
Mode, where the privileges of the browser itself are severely restrictedit
cannot make any system-wide changes. One can optionally turn this mode
off but this is not recommended. This also effectively restricts the privileges
of any add-ons. As a result, even if the browser or any add-on is
compromised, the damage the security breach can cause is limited.
Patches and updates to the browser are released periodically and made
available through the Windows Update service, as well as throughAutomatic
Updates. Although security patches continue to be released for a range of
platforms, most feature additions and security infrastructure improvements
are only made available on operating systems which are in Microsoft's
mainstream support phase.
On December 16, 2008,Trend Microrecommended users switch to rival
browsers until an emergency IE patch was released to fix a potential
security risk which "could allow outside users to take control of a person's
computer and steal their passwords". Microsoft representatives countered
this recommendation, claiming that "0.02% of internet sites" were affected
by the flaw.
On December 17, 2008, a fix to the security problem above became available,
with the release of the Security Update for Internet Explorer KB960714,
which is available from Microsoft Windows Update's webpage. Microsoft has
 Apple Safari.

Developed by Apple Inc.

Initial release January7, 2003
Written in C++,Objective- COperating
system OS X,iOS
Engines WebKit, Nitro
License Freeware, some components
GNU LGPL
 About Safari.(Cont.)
Safariis aweb browserdeveloped byApple Inc.and included
with theOS XandiOSoperating systems. First released as a
public betaon January 7, 2003,on the company's OS
Xoperating system, it became Apple's default browser
beginning with Mac OS X v10.3"Panther". Safari is also the
native browser for iOS.
A version of Safari for theMicrosoft Windowsoperating system
was first released on June 11, 2007,and supportedWindows
XPService Pack 2, or later,but it has been discontinued.Safari
5.1.7, released on May 9, 2012, is the last version available for
Windows.
According toNet Applications, Safari accounted for 46.07% of
mobile web browsing traffic and 5.28% of desktop traffic in June
2014, giving a combined market share of 12.32%.
 Safaris Features.
On Mac OS X, Safari is aCocoaapplication. It uses Apple's WebKit for
rendering web pages and running JavaScript. WebKit consists of WebCore
(based onKonqueror's KHTML engine) and JavaScriptCore (originally based
onKDE's JavaScript engine, named KJS). Like KHTML and KJS, WebCore and
JavaScriptCore arefree softwareand are released under the terms of
theGNU Lesser General Public License. Some Apple improvements to the
KHTML code are merged back into the Konqueror project. Apple also
releases additional code under anopen source2-clauseBSD-like license.
Until Safari 6.0, it included a built-inweb feedaggregatorthat supported
theRSSandAtomstandards. Current features include Private Browsing (a
mode in which no record of information about the user's web activity is
retained by the browser),a "Ask websites not to track me" privacy setting,
the ability to archive web content inWebArchiveformat, the ability to e-
mail complete web pages directly from a browser menu, the ability to
search bookmarks, and the ability to share tabs between all Macs and iOS
devices running appropriate versions of software via an iCloud account.
 Safari Security.

Apple maintains a plug-in blacklist

that it can remotely update to
prevent potentially dangerous or
vulnerable plug-ins from running on
Safari. So far, Apple has blocked
versions of Flash and Java.
 Safari Security.(Cont.)
Browser exploits

In thePWN2OWNcontest at the 2008 CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver,

British Columbia, a successful exploit of Safari caused Mac OS X to be the first OS to
fall in a hacking competition. Participants competed to find a way to read the
contents of a file located on the user's desktop, in one of three operating systems:
Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista SP1, andUbuntu7.10. On the second day of the
contest, when users were allowed to physically interact with the computers (the
prior day permitted only network attacks),Charlie Millercompromised Mac OS X
through an unpatched vulnerability of thePCRE libraryused by Safari.Miller had
been aware of the flaw prior to the beginning of the conference and worked to
exploit it unannounced, as is the common approach in these contests.The exploited
vulnerability was patched in Safari 3.1.1, among other flaws.
In the 2009 PWN2OWN contest, Charlie Miller performed another successful exploit of
Safari to hack into a Mac. Miller again acknowledged that he had advance
knowledge of the security flaw prior to the competition, and had done considerable
research and preparation work on the exploit.Apple released a patch for this exploit
and others on May 12, 2009 with Safari 3.2.3.
Safari on Mac.
Safari on iPod.
Safari on iPhone.
Safari on iPad.
Safari on Windows.
Safari on Linux.
 pera.
Developed by Opera Software.
Initial release1995.
Written in C++.
Operating system Windows, OS X, Linux,
FreeBSD, iOS, Android, BlackBerry.
Engines Blink,V8.
Available in 42 languages.
License Proprietaryfreeware
withopen-sourcecomponents.
 About pera.
Operais aweb browserdeveloped byOpera Software. The latest
version currently runs onMicrosoft WindowsandOS X operating
systemsand uses theBlinklayout engine. An earlier version using
thePrestolayout engine is still supported, and additionally runs
onLinuxandFreeBSDsystems. As of August 2014, a Blink-based
Linux version is available on the developer stream.Editions of
Opera are available for devices running
theAndroid,iOS,Symbian,Maemo,Bada,BlackBerryand Windows
Mobileoperating systems, and forJava MEcapable devices.
According to Opera Software, the browser had more than 350 million
users worldwide (more than 270 million users with mobile
versions) in December 2013.Opera has been noted for originating
many features later adopted by other web browsers. A prominent
example isSpeed Dial.
 peras Features.

Opera includes built-intabbed

browsing, abookmarksbar, add-ons,
and adownload manager. Opera has
"Speed Dial", which allows the user to
add an unlimited number of pages
shown inthumbnailform in a page
displayed when a new tab is opened.
Speed Dial allows the user to more
easily navigate to the selected web
pages.
 pera Security.
One security feature is the option to delete private
data, such asHTTP cookies, browsing history, items
in cache and passwords with the click of a
button.This lets users erase personal data after
browsing from a shared computer.
When visiting a site, Opera displays a security badge
in the address bar which shows details about the
website, including security certificates. The browser
checks the website that is being visited against
blacklists forphishingandmalware, and displays a
warning page if it matches any of these lists.
 pera Security.(Cont.)
To catch security flaws and othersoftware bugsbefore they
are exploited or become a serious problem, the Opera
Software company maintains a publicweb formwhere
users can submit bug reports.
In January 2007,Asa Dotzlerof the competingMozilla
Corporationaccused the Opera Software company of
downplaying information about security vulnerabilities in
Opera that were fixed in December 2006. Dotzler claimed
that users were not clearly informed of security
vulnerabilities present in the previous version of Opera,
and thus they would not realize that they needed to
upgrade to the latest version or risk being exploited.Opera
responded to these accusations the next day.
 Netscape Navigator.

Developed by Netscape
Communications Corporation.
Initial release15 December 1994.
Cross-platform
 About NN.
Netscape Navigatorwas aproprietaryweb browser. It was
theflagshipproduct of theNetscape Communications Corpand
was the dominant web browser in terms ofusage sharein the
1990s, but by 2002 its usage had almost disappeared. This was
primarily due to the increased usage ofMicrosoft'sInternet
Explorerweb browser software, and partly because the Netscape
Corporation (later purchased byAOL) did not sustain Netscape
Navigator's technical innovation after the late 1990s.
The business demise of Netscape was a central premise
ofMicrosoft's antitrust trial, wherein the Court ruled thatMicrosoft
Corporation's bundling of Internet Explorer with theWindows
operating systemwas amonopolisticand illegal business practice.
The decision came too late for Netscape however, as Internet
Explorer had by then become the dominant web browser in
Windows.
 About NN.
The Netscape Navigator web browser was succeeded
byNetscape Communicator. Netscape Communicator's 4.x
source code was the base for the Netscape-
developedMozilla Application Suite, which was later
renamedSeaMonkey.Netscape's Mozilla Suite also served
as the base for a browser-only spinoff calledMozilla
FirefoxandNetscapeversions 6 through 9.
AOL stopped development of Netscape Navigator on 28
December 2007, but continued supporting the web
browser with security updates until 1 March 2008. AOL
allows downloading of archived versions of the Netscape
Navigator web browser family. AOL maintains the Netscape
website as anInternet portal.
 Decline.
With the success of Netscape showing the importance of the web (more people
were using the Internet due in part to the ease of using Netscape), Internet
browsing began to be seen as a potentially profitable market. Following
Netscape's lead, Microsoft started a campaign to enter the web browser
software market. Like Netscape before them, Microsoft licensed the Mosaic
source code fromSpyglass, Inc.(which in turn licensed code fromUniversity of
Illinois). Using this basic code, Microsoft createdInternet Explorer(IE).
The competition between Microsoft and Netscape dominated theBrowser Wars.
Internet Explorer,Version 1.0(shipped in the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Microsoft
Plus! ForWindows 95) and IE,Version 2.0(the first cross-platform version of
the web browser, supporting both Windows andMac OS) were thought by
manyto be inferior and primitive when compared to contemporary versions of
Netscape Navigator. With the release ofIE version 3.0(1996) Microsoft was
able to catch up with Netscape competitively, withIE Version 4.0(1997) further
improving in terms of market share.IE 5.0(1999) improved stability and took
significant market share from Netscape Navigator for the first time.
 Decline.(Cont.)
At decade's end, Netscape's web browser had lost dominance over the
Windows platform, and the August 1997 Microsoft financial agreement to
invest one hundred and fifty million dollars inApplerequired that Apple
make Internet Explorer the default web browser in new Mac OS
distributions. The latestIE Macrelease at that time wasInternet
Explorer version 3.0 for Macintosh, but Internet Explorer 4 was
released later that year.
Microsoft succeeded in havingISPsand PC vendors distribute Internet
Explorer to their customers instead of Netscape Navigator, mostly due to
Microsoft using its leverage from Windows OEM licenses, and partly aided
by Microsoft's investment in making IEbrandable, such that a customized
version of IE could be offered. Also, web developers usedproprietary,
browser-specific extensions in web pages. Both Microsoft and Netscape
were found guilty of supporting this, having added many proprietary HTML
tags to their browsers, which forced users to choose between two
competing and almost incompatible web browsers.
 Decline.(Cont.)
On 28 December 2007, the Netscape
developers announced that AOL had
canceled development of Netscape
Navigator, leaving it unsupported as of 1
March 2008.Despite this, archived and
unsupported versions of the browser remain
available for download. Firefox would go on
to win back market share from Internet
Explorer in the next round of the browser
wars.
Netscape for
Windows.
Netscape for Mac.
Comparison.
 Browser
compatibility.
Google Chrome: Windows, Mac OS X and
Linux
Mozilla Firefox: Windows, Mac OS X and
Linux (Not compatible on iOS)
Internet Explorer: Windows (7 & 8)
Safari: Mac OS X (Safari 5.17 is available to
download for Windows)
Opera : Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
Benchmark Tests Compared
Browser Acid3 Sunspide Kraken Octane HTML
r JavaScrip 2.0 Complian
t ce

Chrome 100 555.7 ms 1590.4 23881 506/555

ms

IE 100 91.8 ms 2234.2ms 14958 374/555

Firefox 100 164.5 ms 1316.0 20757 467/555

ms

Safari 100 280.4 ms 55.89 fps 5377 378/500

Opera 100 188.2 ms 1496.5 23961 497/555

ms
Popularity
Market Share
 Browsers Rating (Users) Estimated Marketshare
Marketshare growth ( year
over year)
Chrome 4.0 32.5% 9.8%

IE 2.6 22% -34%

Firefox 4.3 12.6% -8.9%

Safari 3.6 12.7% 19.4%

Opera 4.6 0.61% 84.9%

Netscape 3.3 N/a N/a

:- http://web-browsers.findthebest.com/
Chrome has maximum
Marketshare.