Web development is always credited to the browsers. Of course, without these browsers, you may still be back in the past of Lynx, an old text-only browser. Browsers have shaped the present web, but these have also made developing websites an extremely complicated business.

Back in the year 1993, the creator of Netscape, Marc Anderson, was working for the predecessor of Netscape, “Mosaic”. The web already existed, but it was still not fully developed. During that year, the browser added another feature that led to the rush of websites of 1995-96, the images. Mosaic can already display graphics on the web page. Suddenly, non-professionals got interested in the web and all started using it. It also marked the initial shot in the browser war, which Browser warshas sustained until this day. Authors of web pages had problems. Even though they can already use graphics as buttons of navigation, they didn’t know how Lynx users view all pages. Luckily, there was a trouble-free element that has solved the problem – the ALT tag. When a web page author included ALT text to the image, the browser will display the texts in the place of graphics. Of course, only few web page makers knew about this and many have bothered to include the ALT text if they did. This is when issues on browser compatibility started. Marc Anderson, expecting the potential for the internet to become much larger than it was at that time, saw a chance to make a much better browser compared to Mosaic and so he created one. Netscape, later known as Mozilla, was established in October 1994. It was cool because it enabled people to change the visited links, colors and looks. People can also add background graphics and colors. It has revolutionized the gray web pages before that have red and blue links. If you have seen and used Mosaic, you will really be amazed with the great advancement and cooler features of Netscape. All web page creators will simply add graphic or text saying “best if visited Netscape” on their pages.Before putting all the blames to I.E. and Netscape about these browser wars, you must realize that they are just responding to the market that was asking for features quicker than can be sensibly produced. They would like better graphics, animation, all the bells, whistles, cool layouts and rollovers and I.E. and Netscape were making these things possible. One of the most essential elements requested by web page users and designers is the capability to manage the layout and type of sites. I.E. and Netscape both replied by giving several ways to manage these features. Of course, every browser tried the features with a little difference only and although a single HTML may work fine with Netscape, it may not work for I.E. and vice versa.