What was the first popular graphical web browser?
Quick answer
The first widely used graphical web browser was Mosaic, released in 1993 by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. Created mainly by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, it displayed images alongside text on the same page and was easy to install.
Why Mosaic mattered
Earlier browsers existed, including WorldWideWeb, made by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, but they were limited to certain computers or showed mostly text. Mosaic:
- Showed pictures inline with text, rather than in separate windows
- Ran on popular systems: Windows, Mac and Unix
- Was free for non-commercial use
- Had a simple point-and-click interface with clickable links
Within a year, it had millions of users, and web traffic grew rapidly.
The web before and after
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1990 | Tim Berners-Lee builds the first browser and web server; see who invented the World Wide Web |
| 1993 | Mosaic released |
| 1994 | Andreessen co-founds Netscape, releasing Netscape Navigator |
| 1995 | Microsoft launches Internet Explorer, based on licensed Mosaic code |
| Late 1990s | The “browser wars” between Netscape and Microsoft |
Netscape’s story is told in what Netscape Navigator was.
The image tag
Mosaic popularized the HTML <img> tag, proposed by Andreessen in 1993, which lets web pages include pictures. Nearly every web page still uses it.
Mosaic’s descendants
Mosaic itself was discontinued in 1997. But its influence lives on:
- Netscape’s code became the basis of Mozilla and Firefox.
- Internet Explorer grew out of licensed Mosaic code.
Browsers today
| Browser | Maker | Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Blink | |
| Safari | Apple | WebKit |
| Edge | Microsoft | Blink |
| Firefox | Mozilla | Gecko |
Every browser finds sites using addresses called URLs; see what URL stands for.
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