Internet Explorer's fate reflects vast changes in Microsoft's internal and external strategies required to address the whims of the Internet.
| IE's coming of age | |
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Aug 1995 | IE 1.0 launches. Microsoft vows to wrest hold of the browser market from Netscape and its Navigator software. Netscape debuts on Wall Street a triumphant initial public offering and a mind-boggling stock rise. |
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Nov 1995 | IE 2.0 launches with newsgroup reader, improved support for tables, HTML, and Secure Sockets Layer. |
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Feb 1996 | Microsoft announces a corporate reorganization intended to hone its attack on the Internet market. Netscape and other Net start-ups loom as potential threats to Microsoft's industry-dominating Windows operating system. |
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Mar 1996 | America Online surprises the industry by choosing IE over Navigator for its 5 million members. The company years later will testify that it did so under threat of losing its coveted place on the Windows desktop. |
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Aug 1996 | IE 3.0 launches, bringing Microsoft's technology closer to par on basic features. These include HTML 3.2, Java support, and an email reader. Microsoft introduces Web searching through the browser interface, a still-evolving feature. IE 3.0 supports ActiveX and Cascading Style Sheets, and features NetMeeting conferencing software. |
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Sep 1996 | Market share studies show IE rapidly gaining on Netscape software, though still far behind. In one survey, IE doubled its share to 8 percent. In another, it doubled its share to nearly 30 percent. |
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Sep 1997 |
Microsoft launches IE 4.0, the browser destined to be integrated
with the Windows operating system. With the browsers equivalent in basic functions, Microsoft begins adding new features like
push content channels and its Active Desktop, which makes PC files available through the browser window.
The Justice Department asks a federal court to hold Microsoft in civil contempt, alleging that Microsoft's bundling of IE with Windows 95 violates terms of a 1995 antitrust settlement. The DOJ seeks to impose a $1 million-per-day fine if the violation continues. |
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Nov 1997 | Study shows IE narrowing a still-considerable gap with Netscape, which leads 58 percent to 40 percent. |
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Dec 1997 | The judge hearing the Justice Department's consent-decree action issues a temporary order requiring Microsoft to separate IE from Windows 95. The company appeals the ruling. |
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Jan 1998 | Netscape announces Communicator will be free of charge, as IE has been all along. But Netscape goes one step farther in publishing Communicator's source code and establishing Mozilla.org to shepherd its open source development by a worldwide volunteer army of coders. |
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May 1998 | The Justice Department and 20 state attorneys general sue Microsoft for violating antitrust law in allegedly tying IE to Windows. |
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Oct 1998 | Studies shows Netscape losing more ground to IE, falling below the 50 percent mark for the first time but solidfying its lead in some workplace markets. |
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Nov 1998 | America Online announces that it will acquire Netscape, a major blow to Microsoft's so-far steady march on the browser market. AOL says it will continue using IE, but industry analysts doubt that this will continue for long. |
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Mar 1999 | IE 5.0 launches. |