The Web Browser Turns 15: A Look Back

The Web browser turns 15 on Oct. 13, 2009 - a key milestone in the history of the Internet. That’s when the first commercial Web browser - eventually called Netscape Navigator - was released as beta code. While researchers including World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and a team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications created Unix browsers between 1991 and 1994, Netscape Navigator made this small piece of desktop software a household name. By allowing average users to view text and images posted on Web sites, Netscape Navigator helped launch the Internet era along with multiple browser wars, government-led lawsuits and many software innovations. Here are 15 highlights in the history of the Web browser.