Arpanet
Hello Folks,
As I make time for reflect on the last 17 years and think of how we we gone since I started using Mosaic 1.0. Shortly therafter I recall borrowing Netscape‘s Speeding the Net’s Book at the local Library. It was a Biography of sorts Chronicling the start up culture/adventures of the group who founded The modern Browser as well know it. Netscape 1.0 folks! for those who are “ancient enough”.
You may also recall or perhaps not that Netscape 1.0′s release in 1994 included an important security protocol called Secure Socket Layer (SSL) that encrypted messages on both the sending and receiving side of an online transaction.Without SSL – you cannot really do online transactions. An another interesting Icon in Silicon Valley - Jim Clarke who basically funded Netscape is a true visonary and fellow futurist with a practical point of differentiation being that he he followed through from vision into practical reality.
Netscape were closely shadowed by Microsoft’s Explorer and launched as I vaguely recalled some week’s before Explorer hit the market … only to lose market share to Explorer. Might be worth also reading also Bill Gates’s “Business at the Speed of Thought” both of which I read in the late nineties form the same humble library near my home.
Then Firefox debuted on November 9, 2004 some 10 years after the consumer friendly Browser was born and in November 2008 had a 20% market share on the browser market (ref: Firefox CEO John Lily). In March 2010, according to TechReaders, Firefox was up to 31%.
Today Mark Adreessen is a well known silicon Valley entrepeneur who fronts up see/angel capital for folks who like him are trying to evolve the internet a few steps further. This includes backing up Ex Founder of now defunct Imeem into a new Media Venture. I believe Blekko is also one of his Protege as well.
What’s interesting is that whilst we cannot use the Internet without a good browser, any browser the monetisation returns are somewhat small compared to the volume of money it generates by virtue of its own existence .. my research does nto provide me with an accurate enough answer to reference but it seems to be in the vicinity of USD 100 M per annum. So if any of you have better answer, please shout out 
Not that I sneer on USD 100M at all , its just that insane amounts of money is being spend by Amazon.com on livingsocial.com for a measely USD 175M and then gain much anticipated Groupon.com deal coming up for USD 6 Billion folks. In Australian they are forcasting USD 8 billion in Online Sales (ref: http://www.abs.gov.au/)
So I guess its thanks to the visionaries like Lawrence Roberts of the Lincoln Laboratory who made packetinsed transmission of Data possible. (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET) which basically means the ability to also send the date pieces of information like from your Website to simultaneously receiving units like your PC/Mobile for example.
As I close off my reminiscing on stardate 4.12.2010 here what the World Wide Web kinda looked like in 1977.
Way back in March_1977
