This is a table of personal computer web browsers by year of release of major version, in chronological order, with the approximate number of worldwide Internet users in millions. Note that Internet user data is related to the entire market, not the versions released in that year. The increased growth of the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s means that current browsers with small market shares have more total users than the entire market early on. For example, 90% market share in 1997 would be roughly 60 million users, but by the start of 2007 9% market share would equate to over 90 million users.[1]
| Year |
Web Browsers |
Internet
Users (in millions)[1] |
|
Pre-browser: HyperCard, Gopher |
|
| 1991 |
WorldWideWeb |
|
| 1992 |
ViolaWWW, Erwise, MidasWWW, MacWWW |
|
| 1993 |
Mosaic, Cello, Lynx 2.0, Arena, AMosaic 1.0 |
|
| 1994 |
IBM Web Explorer, Netscape Navigator, SlipKnot 1.0, MacWeb, IBrowse, Argo, Minuet |
|
| 1995 |
Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator 2.0, OmniWeb, WebRouser[2], Internet Explorer 2, Grail |
16 |
| 1996 |
Arachne 1.0, Internet Explorer 3.0, Netscape Navigator 3.0, Opera 2.0,
PowerBrowser 1.5[3], Cyberdog, Amaya 0.9[4], AWeb, Voyager |
36 |
| 1997 |
Internet Explorer 4.0, Netscape Navigator 4.0, Netscape Communicator 4.0, Opera 3.0[5], Amaya 1.0[4] |
70 |
| 1998 |
Internet Explorer 5.0 Beta 1, iCab, Mozilla |
147 |
| 1999 |
Amaya 2.0[4], Mozilla M3, Internet Explorer 5.0 |
248 |
| 2000 |
Konqueror, Netscape 6, Opera 4[6], Opera 5[7], K-Meleon 0.2, Amaya 3.0[4], Amaya 4.0[4] |
361 |
| 2001 |
Internet Explorer 6, Galeon 1.0, Opera 6[8], Amaya 5.0[4] |
513 |
| 2002 |
Netscape 7, Mozilla 1.0, Phoenix 0.1, Links 2.0, Amaya 6.0[4], Amaya 7.0[4] |
587 |
| 2003 |
Opera 7[9], Safari 1.0, Epiphany 1.0, Amaya 8.0[4] |
719 |
| 2004 |
Firefox 1.0, Netscape Browser, OmniWeb 5.0 |
817 |
| 2005 |
Safari 2.0, Netscape Browser 8.0, Opera 8.[10], Epiphany1.8, Amaya 9.0[4], AOL Explorer1.0, Maxthon 1.0, Shiira 1.0 |
1018 |
| 2006 |
SeaMonkey 1.0, K-Meleon 1.0, Galeon 2.0, Camino 1.0, Firefox 2.0, Avant 11, iCab 3, Opera 9[11], Internet Explorer 7, Sputnik |
1093 |
| 2007 |
Maxthon 2.0, Netscape Navigator 9, NetSurf 1.0, Flock 1.0, Safari 3.0, Conkeror |
1262 |
| 2008 |
Konqueror 4, Safari 3.1, Opera 9.5[12], Firefox 3, Amaya 10.0[4], Flock 2, Google Chrome 1, Amaya 11.0[4] |
1565 |
| 2009 |
Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome 2, Safari 4 |
|
| Beta |
Camino 2, Opera 10 |
|
| Alpha |
SeaMonkey 2, Maxthon 3, Google Chrome 3 |
|
Other software publishers have extended the functionality of Microsoft's Trident engine. The following browsers are all based on the Trident rendering engine:
Browsers created for enhancements of specific browsing activities.