Brief history of Web browsers
During the last 15-plus years, Web development has worked on (at least) two ends: the development of documents, as we've practiced, and the development of browsers. The coordination between these two processes has led to the development of Web standards and the current state of Web development.
Mid-1990s
- Andreesen invents Mosaic at UI
- First web browser that incorporated modern elements
- Became Netscape, earlier market dominance (90%)
- Microsoft enters browsing
- Releases IE in 1995 to compete with NS
- Competition begins browser wars
- Result: proprietary code
- While committees were considering standards, NS and MS made non-standardized code
- Both NS and MS invented code/tags that initially worked with only its browser: IMG, BLINK, MARQUEE, CENTER, FONT
- With proprietary code, designers were forced to choose a browser for display
- Frontpage released (1996)
- MS Frontpage created to confound the web standards
- Bill Gates tells engineers to develop Frontpage to be non-compliant -- it used tags that would not display on competing browsers
- This prohibited developers who used Frontpage to effectively reach people using Netscape and other browsers
- To this day, it is not recommended to use Frontpage to create web pages
- Now other options exist -- Dreamweaver for compliant code, but not perfect either
Late 1990s, early 2000s
- Microsoft control by 1999
- Besides the development of Frontpage, MS bundles Internet Explorer with all Windows computers, while other browsers needed to be downloaded.
- IE dominates market (>90% market).
- Browser wars conclude -- with Microsoft in control.
- In 1998, standards-based organizations -- like the web standards project -- became more visible.
- Demanding compliant code, WaSP was greeted with skepticism but eventually browsers became more compliant.
- Standards become a means by which browser developers and web designers can agree on "acceptable" code.
- Slowly, IE's dominant position was threated, first by Mozilla, which introduced Firefox.
- Firefox permitted independent developers to create add-ons.
- Firefox remains an open-source browser, allowing independent developers to provide adaptations.
- This model threatened Microsoft's closed model of development and IE no longer is the dominant browser.
Current
- The original Web standards body (W3C) referees the relationship between Web developers and browser developers.
- Browser developers are encouraged to be consistent in their depiction of Web markup and other elements.
- Web developers are encouraged to adhere to accepted conventions of writing HTML, CSS and other standards-based code.
- Today, dozens of browsers exist but others have become extinct.
- Usage statistics change:
Contemporary percentages.
- Following Internet Explorer's initial control ten years ago, in 2010, Firefox has assumed control of 32% of browser market and Google Chrome 12%
- IE for the first time accounts for less than 50% of market share
HTML 5
- While new iteration of HTML (5.0) continues development, browsers and platforms are currently adopting its new technologies.
- HTML 5 is like the earlier versions, and what we write in class, in terms of composition
- Brackets, spaces, quotes, etc.
- But there are new possibilities with HTML 5, that will allow easier incorporation of multimedia and other content.
- Other uses: geolocation of audience (useful for advertising and specialized content), offline storage, drag-and-drop, many others.
- Some of these features have privacy advocates concerned, since the audience is more easily tracked, but advertisers are excited.
Features
- Identification of language
- Browsers need to be told to be in "standards mode"
- For HTML 5: <!DOCTYPE html>
- Layout
- Sections have been identified as HTML 5 tags and thus will not require CSS IDs
- <header>: Groups elements in head area
- <nav>: Navigation areas
- <article>: Stand-alone piece of content
- <section>: Sub-component of an article
- <aside>: Sidebar
- <footer>: Footer material
- These are similar to divs and may be used in conjunction with div tags
- Audio
- In the past, audio could not be played by the browser, instead it needed third-party software (Eg. Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media Player)
- In HTML 5 there is an audio tag
- Video
- Ditto for video support in past browsers
- There is now a video tag
- Other features new to HTML 5
- <canvas>: Allows drawing options
- <time>: Defines date, time
- Geolocation: Allows tracking of user's location
