- Hey y'all!
(pencil clattering)
I thought that would be cute. (laughs)
I'm gonna try it one more time.
Hey, I'm Chenae, and welcome back to another episode
of "Ask Firefox."
If you didn't know,
our fiery little fox has been around the Internet block.
And today, we're talking about the browser wars.
(evil laughter)
All right, first question.
How long have web browsers been a thing?
Oh boy. This is gonna be a deep cut.
So, I've enlisted a little help.
(clears throat)
Oh, Professor!
Did someone call for a lesson in the great browser wars?
Well, well! Then you shall have it.
It all started at the end of the 20th century.
The year? 1990.
The first ever Internet browser was invented.
And it was called World Wide Web.
That's right. Just like the World Wide Web.
And www period whatever you may conjure
in your mind period com.
But they realized that may be confusing.
So they altered their name, to Nexus.
Then in 1993, Mosaic arrives, and they bring -
Now, don't blink or you'll miss it.
Images. Did you blink?
See? Images. On the web.
Such a beautiful sight to behold.
Prior to this, the Internet was naught but old text.
Cello, Arena, Lynx, were but a few that were having at it,
foreshadowing how rather serious
this all is about to become.
In 1994, the first giant arrives. Netscape Navigator.
Its easy-to-use interface made it desirable to all.
Pretty much everyone and their grandma
used Netscape to surf the web.
Then in 1995, the software giant Microsoft,
drops the bomb that is Internet Explorer,
and sets off the very first full-fledged browser war.
Internet Explorer and Netscape are the two powerhouses
to go at it for the coming years.
Outdoing each other, release after release.
Now, Netscape is the current favorite, and Internet Explorer
is actually the underdog at this moment.
So Microsoft deploys a strategy to catch up,
and their strategy? Money! (cash register dinging)
They poured dubious amount of money
and I mean a lot, into developing Internet Explorer.
By 1997, Internet Explorer Four was being bundled
with every copy of Windows, without any cost.
With 90 percent of desktop users already using Windows,
Internet Explorer becomes an automatic shoo-in.
So even with Microsoft's efforts to crush the competition,
other players still wanna play. And players gonna play.
In 2003, Apple goes on a Safari.
And releases their browser called, you guessed it, "Safari."
In 2004, the Mozilla Foundation launches Firefox.
That's us! Now, with some new players on the scene,
the next phase of the browser war starts to drum up.
At this point, we have all sorts of browsers.
Internet Explorer's still on top.
Of course, there's Safari and Firefox,
but there's also Opera, Amaya, Epiphany, Shoe.
The list goes on and on!
And there's also a bunch of operating systems in use.
Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Unix systems.
Changing web standards, HTML One, then HTML Two.
And three, and four, even XHTML.
And SGML, cascading style sheets, JavaScript, and Flash.
Remember when Flash was a thing?
Okay, you get the point.
There's a lot of things.
So you can't imagine compatibility
becomes the name of the game.
This kicks off a new era of rapid releases.
Constant updates after updates.
It becomes a rat race to keep our browser the freshest,
and most featured.
We launched versions of Firefox
that included tabbed browsing, spell checking,
pop-up blocker, extensions,
and the built-in search-into-the-browser toolbar.
Now, I wouldn't necessarily say we were visionaries.
But if you wanna say that, and tell all your friends,
I won't check ya, boo.
And so, Firefox starts to take a huge chunk of users.
We, the underdogs, with our merry little band
of punk rock developers,
and freaking awesome community of contributors,
built a browser that starts taking out the big dog.
And for a time, Firefox becomes a household name.
But of course, in 2008, Google launches Chrome,
with the promise of a faster, and lighter browser.
Much like Firefox!
It was open source, and very strongly supported
open web standards.
Interesting coincidence?
Chrome's A-Team might have been a bunch
of former Firefox developers.
You know what I'm saying?
And if you don't already know, Chrome sort of sweeps in,
and take over, in this phase of the browser war.
Especially with the pairing of the ever-so-popular Gmail.
All the while, collecting your personal data,
and mining it to creepily suggest ads about things
no one should ever know about, except you. Anyhoo.
That concludes us to the current state of the browser wars.
Which leads me to another lesson!
(alarm rings)
Okay, thank you! So there you have it!
Browser wars was a whole big convoluted thing.
And now they're just doing their own individual things.
And each have taken shape
to have their own characteristics and quirks.
So that leads us to the next question.
Browsers are basically the same these days, right?
What makes Firefox different from Chrome, or Safari?
Functionally, yes.
Most browsers are basically the same these days.
They're practically a utility, like electricity,
or indoor plumbing.
You can't really access the Internet without a browser.
So in that case, maybe it's more like a power outlet?
A toilet?
But let's talk about what separates us,
from the rest of the pack.
Do you like trillion-dollar companies sucking up your data?
No? Well, we're backed by a not-for-profit.
Look, our mission is to ensure the Internet
is a global public resource, open and accessible to all.
In fact, we nerd all so hard about internet positivity,
we wrote a whole manifesto.
Link in the description below. Wha-what?
Firefox is open source.
Which means our code is open and freely available
to all to develop and distribute.
Why is that a big deal?
We wanna invite collaboration and progress together.
Instead of building a wall of patents,
we encourage developers all over the world
to contribute code to our browser.
We have support for 97 languages.
We really only develop in English.
So the 96 others come from our community.
And all sorts of creative folks
contribute various add-ons and themes.
So yes, you can thank us for the best add-ons ever.
And definitely one of the most important? Your privacy!
While many other browsers have been collecting your data,
we've been implementing ways to block ad trackers,
fingerprinters, and all sorts of
other unwanted cookie monsters.
Just check out our tools!
We've got private browsing, guest browsing,
total cookie protection, multi-account containers.
You name it!
Next question. What does the future hold for web browsing?
Okay, yeah!
Let me just pull out my crystal ball.
I don't know!
We went from flash videos, to memes, to TikToks.
The web is a crazy place that's constantly evolving.
So what does a future browser look like?
Hard to say, but we can share that Firefox
just shipped a big update.
And a couple new key features give us a little glimpse
into where we're heading.
First, Firefox View, where you can find
the most relevant content you've interacted with.
Safely come back when you're done
with your current activities,
or access personalization choices.
Another feature? Firefox will let you move seamlessly
between devices by displaying your last opened desktop tab,
on mobile and vice versa.
This means when you start thinking about dinner
during that last hour of work,
the recipe you pulled up on your desktop
will be ready on your phone.
All right, so there you have it. Wanna know more?
Hit us up on IG and Twitter.
Make sure to give this video a thumbs up,
and subscribe for new videos every week.
Until next time, I'm Chenae.
Stay classy, surfers!