Connections Vol. 3 Issue 3 Winter 2008

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Return of the Browser Wars

By: James R. Dragoo, Jr.

You may have heard of the "Browser Wars" back in the 199'’s when the internet took off and there were several browsers around trying to become the top dog. Well they have returned!

For those of you that have not heard of them, I will give you a brief history as well as how they are changing the internet. More importantly I will discuss how this affects you as a business owner.

In the Beginning

It all started around 1990 when the Internet was introduced to the general public. Less than a year later many different browsers, such as Netscape Navigator began to pop up to provide a way for people to connect to the internet and view web pages. Many of these early browsers were very simple compared to today. Many could only view text or had very limited graphical capabilities. The browser with the most features and most users was Netscape Navigator. By 1994 Netscape Navigator had become the dominant most widely used browser.

Then in 1995 Microsoft released Internet Explorer (IE) 1.0. This was what many considered to be the start of the Browser Wars. What was so significant about this you might say? Well since IE and Netscape Navigator both wanted to be the #1 browser they would release new features and upgrades several times a year. This inadvertently lead to huge advancements in web technology such as JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), all elements that lead to the internet as we know it today.

The problem was if you were a business owner with a website at this time, IE and Netscape displayed sites differently from each other. This meant that if you had a website you had to choose which browser you wanted your site to run on. Several sites at this time would have messages such as "This site requires Internet Explorer" or "This site requires Netscape Navigator." This lead to a very inconsistent World Wide Web in which you could only view half of the sites out there unless you took the time to download both browsers and use the appropriate browser for the appropriate site.

Eventually in 1997 IE (now in version 4) became the dominant browser being used by 72% of all internet users. A year later Netscape Navigator went out of business and the Browser Wars came to an end.

The Dark Times

By 2002 98% of all internet users use Internet Explorer. Because it has practically no competition at this time there are not very many upgrades and new features created and advances in web technologies become relatively stagnant. In the mean time the now defunct Netscape Navigator is picked up by the Mozilla Foundation. They use Netscape as a foundation for creating a new browser known as Firefox. Firefox begins to gain popularity as many internet users prefer its interface over Internet Explorer.

Macintosh also creates its own browser at this time known as Safari. At first Safari could only be used on a Macintosh computer but in the coming years that would change.

The Browser Wars Return

As Firefox continues to gain more of the market from IE the pace of development begins to increase once again. In 2006 IE releases version 7.0. The next month Firefox releases version 2.0.

In 2007 Macintosh releases a version of their Safari browser for the Windows operating system. This entered Safari as a contender in the new Browser Wars. That same year the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) reported that Firefox now had 35.4% of the browsing market.

In September of 2008 yet another company throws its hat into the mix. Google releases a browser known as Chrome. Chrome has features similar to Firefox, IE and Safari; as well as new features not seen before. It boasts higher speeds when browsing and can even interface with and run some programs that are located on your computer.

Chrome gained 1% of the internet browsing market practically overnight. In user preference testing it scored lower than Firefox and Safari but scored higher than IE. Chrome is still very young and new but has the potential to become the top browser.

Now the important issue, what does this mean for a business owner with a website? Well, the good news is that today’s browsers strive to comply with standards meaning that if you have a site designed to run in IE there is a good chance that it will run in Firefox as well. There is no need to pick a side and hope that you made the right decision. The one thing to keep in mind is that they are different browsers and sometimes do not display or function exactly the same. That is why it is a good idea to view your website in as many browsers as possible to ensure that there are no major issues or errors in any one browser.

The other good thing, whether you are a website owner or not, is that out of this competition will come new and rapid advancements in web technology. The results of this technology could mean everything from increasing efficiency to saving time and energy to increasing online sales and the economy. Many good things are ahead of us.

Enhance your Website with Videos

By: Blaine R. Hilton

High speed Internet connections have taken over cable modems, DSL, and air cards (high speed wireless). It is now possible to move huge amounts of data in merely minutes or seconds. Gone are the days of photocopying reams of documents and stuffing them into an overnight express package envelope, no more airway bills to fill out, not to mention the huge cost savings.

The astonishing speed that information moves at these days has enriched both the way we do business and entertain ourselves so greatly it is almost unbelievable.

One area of particular excitement is on line videos. Just a few years ago, people were in awe at the animated GIF images that innova- tive web-masters were spicing their sites up with. Next came downloading short videos and playing them on your PC. Most were just short little clips and snippets, though, of just seconds or a couple of minutes at the most.

But with cable and high speed came the ability to download even longer videos, of many minutes or more, even entire movies, although these took quite some time and still do.

This IS the golden age of communication! Just consider the recent astonishing presiden- tial primary debates hosted by CNN, in which "United States presidential hopefuls fielded questions submitted through the popular social networking site YouTube."

Now, the big thing is streaming videos. You can virtually watch anything and everything on line with your high speed internet connection, short of the current movies that are playing in theatres, or selling in stores on DVD.

And with streaming video, there is no need to download and save it to your own machine. It's on demand at the touch of a button! If you are the owner of a web site and are not using streaming video content, you have to ask yourself a very important question: Why NOT? Video allows people to better comprehend content, as well as engage them. Why?
"According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube."

It's part of the American life style. And more and more of our video watching life is on a computer monitor, and some people are even using large flat screen Plasma and LCD TVs as monitors.

One basic type video you can add to your site is one of a person describing each page, product or service. People connect with faces and voices better than they do with straight text.

There are also other types of videos you can put together. A basic video is where you have one person, or group of people, perhaps a round-table or interview format. Animation is also a great attention grabber, as are screen shot videos if you are selling software.

Just a few short years ago, web sites were largely a bunch of text and blue underlined words. Not any more. Watch your sales grow by adding streaming videos to your web site.

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