This is a timeline of web browsers from 1990 to the present. Prior to browsers, many technologies and systems existed for information viewing and transmission. For an in-depth history of earlier web browsers, see the web browser article.
The following table chronicles the major release dates during the 1990s for the more popular web browsers.
1990 | WorldWideWeb (Nexus) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | Lynx | |||||
Jan | ||||||
Feb | ||||||
Mar | 2.0* | |||||
Apr | ||||||
May | ||||||
Jun | ||||||
Jul | 2.0.10 | |||||
Aug | 2.0.11 | |||||
Sep | ||||||
Oct | ||||||
Nov | 2.0.12 | |||||
Dec | 2.1 | |||||
1994 | Lynx | Mosaic Netscape | Opera | |||
Jan | ||||||
Feb | 2.2 | |||||
Mar | ||||||
Apr | ||||||
May | 2.3 | |||||
Jun | ||||||
Jul | ||||||
Aug | ||||||
Sep | ||||||
Oct | 0.9* | |||||
Nov | 1.0β* | |||||
Dec | 1.0 | |||||
1995 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | ||
Jan | ||||||
Feb | ||||||
Mar | 1.1 | |||||
Apr | 1.0 | |||||
May | ||||||
Jun | 2.4 | |||||
Jul | ||||||
Aug | 1.22 | 1.0* | ||||
Sep | ||||||
Oct | ||||||
Nov | 2.0 | |||||
Dec | ||||||
1996 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Mac IE | |
Jan | 2.0B* | |||||
Feb | ||||||
Mar | 2.0 | |||||
Apr | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||||
May | 2.5 | |||||
Jun | ||||||
Jul | ||||||
Aug | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.1 | |||
Sep | 2.6 | |||||
Oct | ||||||
Nov | ||||||
Dec | 2.10 | |||||
1997 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Mac IE | |
Jan | 3.0 | |||||
Feb | 2.7 | |||||
Mar | ||||||
Apr | ||||||
May | ||||||
Jun | 4.0 | |||||
Jul | ||||||
Aug | ||||||
Sep | ||||||
Oct | 4.0 | |||||
Nov | ||||||
Dec | 3.0 | |||||
1998 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Mac IE | |
Jan | 4.0 | |||||
Feb | ||||||
Mar | 2.8 | |||||
Apr | ||||||
May | ||||||
Jun | ||||||
Jul | ||||||
Aug | ||||||
Sep | ||||||
Oct | 2.8.1 | 4.5 | ||||
Nov | 3.5 | |||||
Dec | ||||||
1999 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Mac IE | Mozilla |
Jan | 4.5 | |||||
Feb | ||||||
Mar | 5.0 | M3* | ||||
Apr | ||||||
May | ||||||
Jun | 2.8.2 | |||||
Jul | ||||||
Aug | ||||||
Sep | ||||||
Oct | ||||||
Nov | ||||||
Dec |
The following table chronicles the major release dates during the 2000s for the more popular web browsers.
2000 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Mac IE | Mozilla | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan | |||||||||||
Feb | |||||||||||
Mar | 5.0† [1] | ||||||||||
Apr | 2.8.3 | ||||||||||
May | |||||||||||
Jun | 4.0 | ||||||||||
Jul | 5.5 | ||||||||||
Aug | 5.6 | ||||||||||
Sep | |||||||||||
Oct | |||||||||||
Nov | 6.0 | ||||||||||
Dec | 5.0 | 0.6 | |||||||||
2001 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Mozilla | ||||||
Jan | 0.7 | ||||||||||
Feb | 0.8 | ||||||||||
Mar | |||||||||||
Apr | |||||||||||
May | 0.9 | ||||||||||
Jun | |||||||||||
Jul | 2.8.4 | ||||||||||
Aug | 6.1 | ||||||||||
Sep | |||||||||||
Oct | 6.2 | 6.0 | |||||||||
Nov | 6.0 | ||||||||||
Dec | |||||||||||
2002 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Chimera | Mozilla | Phoenix | ||||
Jan | |||||||||||
Feb | 0.1* | ||||||||||
Mar | |||||||||||
Apr | 0.2 | ||||||||||
May | |||||||||||
Jun | 1.0 | ||||||||||
Jul | 0.4 | ||||||||||
Aug | 7.0 (& 4.8) | 1.1 | |||||||||
Sep | 6.0 SP1 | 0.5 | 0.1* | ||||||||
Oct | 0.4 | ||||||||||
Nov | 0.6 | 1.2 | |||||||||
Dec | 0.5 | ||||||||||
2003 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Camino | Mozilla | Firebird | Safari | Maxthon | ||
Jan | 7.0 | ||||||||||
Feb | |||||||||||
Mar | 0.7 | 1.3 | |||||||||
Apr | 7.1 | ||||||||||
May | 0.6 | ||||||||||
Jun | 7.1 | 1.4 | 1.0 | ||||||||
Jul | |||||||||||
Aug | |||||||||||
Sep | 7.2 | ||||||||||
Oct | 1.5 | 0.7 | |||||||||
Nov | |||||||||||
Dec | .9* | ||||||||||
2004 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Camino | Mozilla | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | ||
Jan | 1.6 | ||||||||||
Feb | 2.8.5 | 0.8 | |||||||||
Mar | |||||||||||
Apr | |||||||||||
May | 7.5 | ||||||||||
Jun | 0.8 | 1.7 | 0.9 | ||||||||
Jul | |||||||||||
Aug | 7.2 | 6.0 SP2 | |||||||||
Sep | 0.10 (PR) | 1.0* | |||||||||
Oct | |||||||||||
Nov | 1.0 | ||||||||||
Dec | |||||||||||
2005 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Camino | Mozilla SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | |
Jan | |||||||||||
Feb | |||||||||||
Mar | |||||||||||
Apr | 8.0 | 2.0 | |||||||||
May | 8.0 | ||||||||||
Jun | |||||||||||
Jul | |||||||||||
Aug | |||||||||||
Sep | 8.5 | SM 1.0α* | 1.5 | 3.0* | |||||||
Oct | |||||||||||
Nov | 1.5 | ||||||||||
Dec | |||||||||||
2006 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Camino | Mozilla SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | |
Jan | 8.1 | SM 1.0 | |||||||||
Feb | 1.0 | ||||||||||
Mar | |||||||||||
Apr | M. 1.7.13† [2] | ||||||||||
May | |||||||||||
Jun | 9.0 | ||||||||||
Jul | |||||||||||
Aug | |||||||||||
Sep | |||||||||||
Oct | 2.8.6 | 7.0 | 2.0 | ||||||||
Nov | 4.0 | ||||||||||
Dec | 9.1 | ||||||||||
2007 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Camino | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 1.1 | ||||||||||
Feb | |||||||||||
Mar | |||||||||||
Apr | 9.2 | ||||||||||
May | 1.6 | 1.0* [3] | |||||||||
Jun | 1.5 | 3.0 | |||||||||
Jul | 2.0 | ||||||||||
Aug | 1.1 [3] | ||||||||||
Sep | |||||||||||
Oct | 9.0 | ||||||||||
Nov | |||||||||||
Dec | |||||||||||
2008 | Lynx | Netscape | Opera | IE | Camino | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | |||||||||||
Feb | 9.0.0.6† [4] | ||||||||||
Mar | 3.1 | 1.2 [3] | |||||||||
Apr | 1.6 | ||||||||||
May | |||||||||||
Jun | 9.5 | 3.0 | |||||||||
Jul | |||||||||||
Aug | |||||||||||
Sep | 0.2.149.27* | ||||||||||
Oct | 9.6 | ||||||||||
Nov | |||||||||||
Dec | 1.0 | 2.5 | |||||||||
2009 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Camino | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | |||||||||||
Feb | |||||||||||
Mar | 8.0 | ||||||||||
Apr | 2.0 [3] | ||||||||||
May | 2.0 | 2.1 [3] | |||||||||
Jun | 3.5 | 4.0 | |||||||||
Jul | 2.8.7 | ||||||||||
Aug | |||||||||||
Sep | 3.0 | 10.0 | 5.1 | ||||||||
Oct | 2.0 | ||||||||||
Nov | 10.10 | 2.0 | |||||||||
Dec | 6.0 |
The following table chronicles the major release dates during the 2010s for the more popular web browsers.
2010 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Camino | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan | 4.0 | 3.6 | |||||||||
Feb | |||||||||||
Mar | 10.50 | ||||||||||
Apr | 6.1 | 2.5 [3] | |||||||||
May | 5.0 | ||||||||||
Jun | 4.1, 5.0 | ||||||||||
Jul | 10.60 | 6.2 | |||||||||
Aug | 6.3 | ||||||||||
Sep | 6.0 | 3.0 [5] | 2.6 [3] | ||||||||
Oct | 7.0 | ||||||||||
Nov | |||||||||||
Dec | 8.0 | 11.0 | |||||||||
2011 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Camino | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 6.4 | ||||||||||
Feb | 9.0 | ||||||||||
Mar | 10.0 | 9.0 | 4.0 | ||||||||
Apr | 11.0 | 11.10 | 2.7 [3] | ||||||||
May | 6.5 | ||||||||||
Jun | 12.0 | 11.50 | 2.1 | 5.0 | 3.1 [6] | ||||||
Jul | 2.2 | 5.1 | |||||||||
Aug | 13.0 | 6.0 | |||||||||
Sep | 14.0 | 2.4 | 7.0 | 2.8 [3] | |||||||
Oct | 15.0 | 3.2 [6] | |||||||||
Nov | 2.1 | 2.5 | 8.0 | ||||||||
Dec | 16.0 | 11.60 | 2.6 | 9.0 | 3.3 [6] | ||||||
2012 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Camino | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 2.7 | 10.0 | |||||||||
Feb | 17.0 | ||||||||||
Mar | 18.0 | 2.1.2† [7] [8] | 2.8 | 11.0 | |||||||
Apr | 2.9 | 12.0 | 6.7 | 2.9 [3] | |||||||
May | 19.0 | ||||||||||
Jun | 12.00 | 2.10 | 13.0 | 3.4 [6] | |||||||
Jul | 20.0 | 2.11 | 14.0 | 6.0 | |||||||
Aug | 21.0 | 2.12 | 15.0 | ||||||||
Sep | 22.0 | 6.8 | |||||||||
Oct | 10.0 | 2.13 | 16.0 | ||||||||
Nov | 23.0 | 12.10 | 2.14 | 17.0 | 3.5 [6] | ||||||
Dec | 4.0 [9] | ||||||||||
2013 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf | |
Jan | 24.0 | 2.15 | 18.0 | ||||||||
Feb | 25.0 | 2.16 | 19.0 | ||||||||
Mar | 26.0 | ||||||||||
Apr | 12.15 | 2.17 | 20.0 | 3.0 [3] | |||||||
May | 27.0 | 21.0 | |||||||||
Jun | 22.0 | 4.1 [9] | |||||||||
Jul | 28.0 | 15.0 | 2.19 | ||||||||
Aug | 29.0 | 2.20 | 23.0 | ||||||||
Sep | 16.0 | 2.21 | 24.0 | ||||||||
Oct | 30.0 | 17.0 | 11.0 | 2.22 | 25.0 | 7.0 | |||||
Nov | 31.0 | 18.0 | 4.2 [9] | ||||||||
Dec | 2.23 | 26.0 | |||||||||
2014 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf | |
Jan | 32.0 | 19.0 | |||||||||
Feb | 2.8.8 | 33.0 | 2.24 | 27.0 | 4.3 [9] | ||||||
Mar | 20.0 | 2.25 | 28.0 | ||||||||
Apr | 34.0 | 29.0 | 4.4 [9] | 3.1 [3] | |||||||
May | 35.0 | 21.0 | 2.26 | ||||||||
Jun | 22.0 | 30.0 | |||||||||
Jul | 36.0 | 23.0 | 31.0 | 6.9 | |||||||
Aug | 37.0 | 3.2 [3] | |||||||||
Sep | 24.0 | 32.0 | 7.1 | ||||||||
Oct | 38.0 | 25.0 | 2.30 | 33.0 | 8.0 | ||||||
Nov | 39.0 | ||||||||||
Dec | 26.0 | 34.0 | |||||||||
2015 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 40.0 | 2.32 | 35.0 | ||||||||
Feb | 27.0 | 36.0 | |||||||||
Mar | 41.0 | 28.0 | 2.33 [10] | 37.0 | 3.3 [3] | ||||||
Apr | 42.0 | 29.0 | |||||||||
May | 43.0 | 38.0 | |||||||||
Jun | 30.0 | ||||||||||
Jul | 44.0 | 20.10240 [11] | 39.0 | ||||||||
Aug | 31.0 | 40.0 | 6.10 | ||||||||
Sep | 45.0 | 32.0 | 2.38 [12] | 41.0 | 9.0 [13] | 6.11 | |||||
Oct | 46.0 [14] | 33.0 [15] | 4.4.8 [9] | ||||||||
Nov | 25.10586 [16] | 2.39 [17] | 42.0 | ||||||||
Dec | 47.0 [18] | 34.0 [19] | 43.0 [20] | ||||||||
2016 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 48.0 | 35.0 | 44.0 | 9.0.3 | 6.12 | ||||||
Feb | 4.9 [9] | 3.4 [3] | |||||||||
Mar | 49.0 | 36.0 | 2.40 [21] | 45.0 | 9.1 | ||||||
Apr | 50.0 | 46.0 | 6.13 | 3.5 [3] | |||||||
May | 51.0 | 37.0 | 6.14 | ||||||||
Jun | 38.0 | 47.0 | |||||||||
Jul | 52.0 | ||||||||||
Aug | 53.0 | 39.0 | 38.14393 | 48.0 | |||||||
Sep | 40.0 [22] | 49.0 [23] | 10.0 [24] | ||||||||
Oct | 54.0 [25] | 41.0 [26] | 11.0.36 [27] | 4.9.4 [9] 5.0 [28] | |||||||
Nov | 50.0 | 6.15.0 [29] | 3.6 [3] | ||||||||
Dec | 55.0 | 42.0 | 2.46 | ||||||||
2017 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 56.0 | 51.0 | 10.1 | ||||||||
Feb | 43.0 | ||||||||||
Mar | 57.0 | 44.0 | 11.0.40 | 52.0 | |||||||
Apr | 58.0 | 40.15063 | 53.0 | ||||||||
May | 45.0 | ||||||||||
Jun | 59.0 | 46.0 | 11.0.43 | 54.0 | |||||||
Jul | 60.0 | 2.48 | 5.1 [30] | ||||||||
Aug | 47.0 | 55.0 | |||||||||
Sep | 61.0 | 48.0 | 11.0.46 | 41.16299 | 56.0 | 11.0 | |||||
Oct | 62.0 | 3.7 [3] | |||||||||
Nov | 49.0 | 2.49 | 57.0 | ||||||||
Dec | 63.0 | ||||||||||
2018 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 64.0 | 50.0 | 58.0 | ||||||||
Feb | 51.0 | 6.15.2 [31] | |||||||||
Mar | 65.0 | 52.0 | 11.0.56 | 59.0 | 5.2 [30] | ||||||
Apr | 66.0 | 42.17134 | |||||||||
May | 67.0 | 53.0 | 2.49.3 | 60.0 | |||||||
Jun | 54.0 | 61.0 | |||||||||
Jul | 2.8.9 [32] | 68.0 | 2.49.4 | ||||||||
Aug | 55.0 | 3.8 [3] | |||||||||
Sep | 69.0 | 56.0 | 62.0 | 12.0 [33] | |||||||
Oct | 70.0 | 44.17763 | 63.0 | ||||||||
Nov | 57.0 | ||||||||||
Dec | 71.0 | 64.0 | 12.0.2 [34] | ||||||||
2019 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
Jan | 72.0 | 58.0 | 11.0.105 [35] | 65.0 | |||||||
Feb | |||||||||||
Mar | 73.0 | 66.0 | 5.2.7 [30] | ||||||||
Apr | 74.0 | 60.0 | |||||||||
May | 44.18362 | 67.0 | |||||||||
Jun | 75.0 | 62.0 | |||||||||
Jul | 76.0 | 68.0 | 3.9 [3] | ||||||||
Aug | 63.0 | ||||||||||
Sep | 77.0 | 44.18362.387.0 | 2.49.5 | 69.0 | 13.0 | ||||||
Oct | 78.0 | 64.0 | 11.0.155 [36] | 70.0 | 5.3.8 [30] | ||||||
Nov | 65.0 | ||||||||||
Dec | 79.0 | 71.0 |
The following table chronicles the major release dates during the 2020s for the more popular web browsers.
2020 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | IE | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan | 66.0 | 11.0.170 | 79.0 | 72.0 | |||||||
Feb | 80.0 | 67.0 | 80.0 | 2.53.1 | 73.0 | ||||||
Mar | 74.0 | 13.1 | |||||||||
Apr | 81.0 | 68.0 | 81.0 | 75.0 | |||||||
May | 83.0 | 83.0 | 2.53.2 | 76.0 | 3.10 [3] | ||||||
Jun | 69.0 | 77.0 | |||||||||
Jul | 84.0 | 70.0 | 84.0 | 2.53.3 | 79.0 | ||||||
Aug | 85.0 | 85.0 | 80.0 | ||||||||
Sep | 2.9.0dev.6 [37] | 71.0 | 11.0.210† | 2.53.4 | 81.0 | 14.0 | |||||
Oct | 86.0 | 72.0 | 86.0 | 82.0 | |||||||
Nov | 87.0 | 87.0 | 2.53.5 | 83.0 | 6.1.0 [38] | ||||||
Dec | 73.0 | 84.0 | 14.0.2 [39] | ||||||||
2021 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf | |
Jan | 88.0 | 88.0 | 2.53.6 | 85.0 | |||||||
Feb | 74.0 | 86.0 | |||||||||
Mar | 89.0 | 75.0 | 89.0 | 2.53.7 | 87.0 | ||||||
Apr | 90.0 | 76.0 | 90.0 | 88.0 | |||||||
May | 91.0 | 91.0 | |||||||||
Jun | 77.0 | 2.53.8 | 89.0 | ||||||||
Jul | 92.0 | 92.0 | 2.53.8.1 | 90.0 | |||||||
Aug | 93.0 | 78.0 | 93.0 | 2.53.9 | 91.0 | ||||||
Sep | 94.0 | 79.0 | 94.0 | 2.53.9.1 | 92.0 | 15.0 | |||||
Oct | 95.0 | 80.0 | 95.0 | 93.0 | |||||||
Nov | 96.0 | 81.0 | 96.0 | 2.53.10 | 94.0 | ||||||
Dec | 82.0 | 2.53.10.2 | 95.0 | ||||||||
2022 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf | |
Jan | 97.0 | 83.0 | 97.0 | 96.0 | |||||||
Feb | 98.0 | 84.0 | 98.0 | 97.0 | |||||||
Mar | 99.0 | 85.0 | 99.0 | 2.53.11 | 98.0 | 15.4 | |||||
Apr | 101.0 | 86.0 | 101.0 | 99.0 | |||||||
May | 102.0 | 87.0 | 102.0 | 2.53.12 | 101.0 | ||||||
Jun | 103.0 | 88.0 | 103.0 | 102.0 | |||||||
Jul | 104.0 | 89.0 | 2.53.13 | 103.0 | |||||||
Aug | 105.0 | 90.0 | 104.0 | 104.0 | |||||||
Sep | 106.0 | 91.0 | 105.0 | 2.53.14 | 105.0 | 16.0 | |||||
Oct | 107.0 | 92.0 | 107.0 | 106.0 | |||||||
Nov | 108.0 | 93.0 | 107.0 | ||||||||
Dec | 94.0 | 108.0 | 108.0 | ||||||||
2023 | Lynx | Chrome | Opera | Edge | SeaMonkey | Firefox | Safari | Maxthon | Lunascape | NetSurf | |
Jan | 109.0 | 109.0 | 2.53.15 | 109.0 | |||||||
Feb | 110.0 | 95.0 | 110.0 | 110.0 | |||||||
Mar | 111.0 | 97.0 | 111.0 | 2.53.16 | 111.0 | ||||||
Apr | 112.0 | 98.0 | 112.0 | 112.0 | |||||||
May | 114.0 | 99.0 | 113.0 | 113.0 | |||||||
Jun | 100.0 | 114.0 | 114.0 | ||||||||
Jul | 115.0 | 101.0 | 115.0 | 115.0 | |||||||
Aug | 116.0 | 102.0 | 116.0 | 2.53.17 | 117.0 | ||||||
Sep | 117.0 | 117.0 | 2.53.17.1 | 118.0 | |||||||
Oct | 118.0 | 104.0 | 118.0 | 119.0 | |||||||
Nov | 119.0 | 105.0 | 119.0 | 120.0 | |||||||
A web browser is an application for accessing websites and the Internet. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on a range of devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. In 2020, an estimated 4.9 billion people have used a browser. The most used browser is Google Chrome, with a 65% global market share on all devices, followed by Safari with 18%.
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards. In November 2017, Firefox began incorporating new technology under the code name "Quantum" to promote parallelism and a more intuitive user interface. Firefox is available for Windows 10 or later versions, macOS, and Linux. Its unofficial ports are available for various Unix and Unix-like operating systems, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, illumos, and Solaris Unix. It is also available for Android and iOS. However, as with all other iOS web browsers, the iOS version uses the WebKit layout engine instead of Gecko due to platform requirements. An optimized version is also available on the Amazon Fire TV as one of the two main browsers available with Amazon's Silk Browser.
A favicon, also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons associated with a particular website or web page. A web designer can create such an icon and upload it to a website by several means, and graphical web browsers will then make use of it. Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page's favicon in the browser's address bar and next to the page's name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page's favicon next to the page's title on the tab, and site-specific browsers use the favicon as a desktop icon.
A browser war is a competition for dominance in the usage share of web browsers. The "first browser war," (1995–2001) pitted Microsoft's Internet Explorer against Netscape's Navigator. Browser wars continued with the decline of Internet Explorer's market share and the popularity of other browsers including Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge and Opera.
This is a comparison of both historical and current web browsers based on developer, engine, platform(s), releases, license, and cost.
Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) is a deprecated application programming interface (API) of the web browsers that allows plugins to be integrated.
A JavaScript engine is a software component that executes JavaScript code. The first JavaScript engines were mere interpreters, but all relevant modern engines use just-in-time compilation for improved performance.
A browser extension is a software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow users to install a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking, and the custom scripting and styling of web pages.
Lunascape is a web browser developed by Lunascape Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. It is unusual in that it contains three rendering engines: Gecko, WebKit, and Trident. This feature is common only to the Avant web browser. The user can switch between layout engines seamlessly.
The following is a comparison of RSS feed aggregators. Often e-mail programs and web browsers have the ability to display RSS feeds. They are listed here, too.
The Web Open Font Format (WOFF) is a font format for use in web pages. WOFF files are OpenType or TrueType fonts, with format-specific compression applied and additional XML metadata added. The two primary goals are first to distinguish font files intended for use as web fonts from fonts files intended for use in desktop applications via local installation, and second to reduce web font latency when fonts are transferred from a server to a client over a network connection.
SPDY is an obsolete open-specification communication protocol developed for transporting web content. SPDY became the basis for HTTP/2 specification. However, HTTP/2 diverged from SPDY and eventually HTTP/2 subsumed all usecases of SPDY. After HTTP/2 was ratified as a standard, major implementers, including Google, Mozilla, and Apple, deprecated SPDY in favor of HTTP/2. Since 2021, no modern browser supports SPDY.
The HTML5 specification introduced the video element for the purpose of playing videos, partially replacing the object element. HTML5 video is intended by its creators to become the new standard way to show video on the web, instead of the previous de facto standard of using the proprietary Adobe Flash plugin, though early adoption was hampered by lack of agreement as to which video coding formats and audio coding formats should be supported in web browsers. As of 2020, HTML5 video is the only widely supported video playback technology in modern browsers, with the Flash plugin being phased out.
BrowserChoice.eu was a website created by Microsoft in March 2010 following a decision in the European Union Microsoft competition case. The case involved legal proceedings by the European Union against Microsoft and found that, by including Internet Explorer with their market-dominant Windows operating system, Microsoft had used this dominance to create a similar market position in the web browser market. The BrowserChoice.eu website was created to allow users that had not made, or were unaware of, a choice to try other browsers, and thus comply with the European Commission's ruling.
Content Security Policy (CSP) is a computer security standard introduced to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking and other code injection attacks resulting from execution of malicious content in the trusted web page context. It is a Candidate Recommendation of the W3C working group on Web Application Security, widely supported by modern web browsers. CSP provides a standard method for website owners to declare approved origins of content that browsers should be allowed to load on that website—covered types are JavaScript, CSS, HTML frames, web workers, fonts, images, embeddable objects such as Java applets, ActiveX, audio and video files, and other HTML5 features.
HTML5 Audio is a subject of the HTML5 specification, incorporating audio input, playback, and synthesis, as well as, in the browser. iOS
POODLE is a security vulnerability which takes advantage of the fallback to SSL 3.0. If attackers successfully exploit this vulnerability, on average, they only need to make 256 SSL 3.0 requests to reveal one byte of encrypted messages. Bodo Möller, Thai Duong and Krzysztof Kotowicz from the Google Security Team discovered this vulnerability; they disclosed the vulnerability publicly on October 14, 2014. On December 8, 2014 a variation of the POODLE vulnerability that affected TLS was announced.
uBlock Origin is a free and open-source browser extension for content filtering, including ad blocking. The extension is available for Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Pale Moon, as well as versions of Safari prior to 13. uBlock Origin has received praise from technology websites and is reported to be much less memory-intensive than other extensions with similar functionality. uBlock Origin's stated purpose is to give users the means to enforce their own (content-filtering) choices.