Evolution Of Web Browsers Right Into 21st Century

Things changed rapidly when going into next century. New browsers with added features were available in the market to make your web browsing entertaining.

Amaya – Released first in 1996

Amaya created in 1996 by W3C was more the web editor than web browser. The creation of this browser was with a goal to create testbed that stick to more standards. The development of Amaya is still on, but its use is as a testbed for new technologies.

Oracle PowerBrowser – Released first in 1996

A built-in personal web server, Internet search features, supports tables and images, built in basic Java along with basic scripting capabilities and supports third party applications like Network Loadable Objects (NLO) are all available in a single package of Oracle PowerBrowser. Initially available for windows but later was made to support Macs and UNIX.

Mozilla / Seamonkey – Released first in 1998

Mozilla are the developers of Firefox browser but before Firefox, Mozilla Application Suite was developed which is now known as Seamonkey. It contained a web browser, a web page developer, app for Mail and Newsgroup and an IRC client. Mozilla introduced extensions which have played important role in Firefox’s popularity.

Konquerer – Released first in 1996

Konquerer combined KDE technology, a file manager, open source browser and a universal viewing application. Konqueror supports Java applets, JavaScript, SSL, CSS and other standards. It runs on UNIX like OS and Windows. It uses KHTML same as used by Safari browser of Apple.

K-Meleon – Released first in 2000

On using K-Meleon, you may find it similar to Firefox as both the browsers are using Gecko rendering engine.The difference between the two is K-Meleon being much light-weight. Used for ultra lean design that has lighter resources. The users are allowed to change skin and themes with K-Meleon. It supports mouse gestures, pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing. This browser is only for Windows.

Galeon – Released first in 2001

Galeon is based on Gecko layout engines similar to K-Meleon. The goal of Galeon is to provide efficient and light weight browser. There was a fierce debate for Galeon to be simple or advanced with functionality and options. This very thing leads to undoing of original development team of Galeon.

Safari – First released in 2003

Safari web browser was developed by Apple in the year 2003, but it was in 2007 its version Safari 3 became compatible with Window. Safari 3 had ability for resizing text boxes inserted in web pages with quick rendering and good standards compliance.

Jobs and Co. declared Safari 4 released by Apple as fastest browser in the world. It’s a matter of debate but the revamped browser was found to provide notable speed improvements when dealing with JavaScript performance. Safari 4 has windows like appearance different from Mac OS that was used for in previous versions. Safari 4 has simple navigational layout very similar to Google’s Chrome as both of them are built around WebKit platform. Cover Flow has been added for iTunes users to enjoy even when browsing through site history or bookmarks.