When humans think about the world-changing inventions that they have developed over time, the World Wide Web is sure to rank in the top five of that list. It has played such a transformative role in the lives of many, if not all. It has altered the way that we carry out our daily tasks in ways that the creators could at first only imagine.
The invention of the World Wide Web (1989) is credited to Tim Berners-Lee. Initially, the development of the web was for usage by the military and academia but as time went on, some people saw a bigger vision for the platform. One of these people would be the infamous Bill Gates. He dreamed of the web as a place for everyone, not just brainiacs. At the age of 19, Gates dropped out of Harvard to begin a company with a high school friend, Paul Allen. This would be the birth of Microsoft. With this, Gates (now the co-founder and CEO of Microsoft) was able to transform the internet from boring lines of text to a place composed of media by adding images, video, and audio capabilities.
Gates was aggressive with his vision and Microsoft became a billion-dollar company in revenue. He accomplished this by conquering his competitors. Lotus, Word Perfect, and IBM (just to name a few) did not stand a chance against the Gates’s empire. After all, with his cocky demeanor, it had to be admitted that Gates wielded much power but his partner did not share this same attitude. Instead, Allen took a more business-like approach to the company. He realized that despite Mircosoft’s popularity, it still had the potential to be overthrown by a much more skilled competitor. Eventually, this fear was met.
In 1993, two undergraduate students at the University of Illinois formulated their own browser, Netscape. A wealthy computer science professor at Stanford, Jim Clark, saw the potential of the platform. As a result of his taking an interest in Netscape, he began to invest. After all, the main goal of his was to figure out a way to profit off of the internet. Clark reached out to the two boys and offered them a job in California’s Silicone Valley and the boys were eager to accept. Once they relocated to California and began working under Clark, Netscape became the fastest growing software company. There was a high sense of urgency as time was an important tool to capitalize on when competing against the mighty Microsoft. Eventually, Netscape gained its own confidence and became arrogant against its rivals. This attitude would eventually contribute to their downfall. Unknowingly, Netscape had awoken a beastly drive within the Microsoft giants.
After seeing the reactions and acceptance from the public of Netscape, Bill Gates realized the importance of the internet not only to academic professionals but to society as a whole. Here, is where Microsoft would shift into overdrive. A meeting was arranged between the two companies. The tales that the two shares about the meeting differentiate in charm. As Microsoft recalls themselves being quite personable, their counterparts would argue that they were less than friendly. According to Netscape, Microsoft offered them $1 million dollars to be given access to all of their technology otherwise, they would force Microsoft to become copycats of their work. The idea was to push the lesser software company out of business and monopolize the web (ILLEGAL!). Sensing the possibility of wrongdoing ahead of time, Netscape was prepared with the anti-trust councilman, Gary Reback.
After the meeting ended, Netscape had pushed the launch of its IPO to the public. This would seem like a crazy idea seeing as the software company had yet to make a profit during its first year of running. Despite this, the ratings that Netscape received from the stock market was more than enough. Netscape became a household name that consumers frequently mentioned when talking about the internet. Microsoft sat waiting in the shadows for their next move.
On the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Microsoft strategically announced Internet Explorer. While Netscape had to charge money for the use of its browser, Microsoft was able to bundle it with its software and give it away for free. In September 1997, this won over the battle between the two software companies. Ironically to celebrate, Microsoft threw a party in Netscapes territory, Silicone Valley, and a few workers pranked the small company by dropping a huge, blue ‘e’ on the front lawn of the business. Eventually, Netscape was no more after being swallowed up by the company AOL.
It is easy to say that Microsoft won the browser wars but that was not without consequence. The United States Government did not view Bill Gates as a comrade but rather a “high tech terrorist.” Gary Reback and his team took the billion-dollar company to court for illegal monopolization and recommended that the company be broken up. This crush Gates and set the company’s stocks back. Soon after, the reign of Microsoft would end and other internet giants such as Google would step into the spotlight.
Bill Gates is a mogul in the business industry. Check out what I have to say in this vlog entry!
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