When it came to the film, I learned how desperate a company can become to the point of forcing the hands of the market to flow their way despite being able to keep relevance in other ways. The Browser War of Microsoft and Netscape almost felt less like a worry for business and more of a protection of pride from Bill Gates.
The marketing of Netscape allowing the browser to be used for free brought about more traffic with it being an easier way to traverse through the internet, it became many people’s go to browser. The company boomed and its rapid growth was nothing to be ignored, especially by Microsoft who had been the leading company in the technology industry.
The way Microsoft blatantly plagiarized both the demo version of Mosaic and Netscape’s free use marketing tactic to bury them, along with the bug that stopped Netscape from running entirely was quite underhanded and I was relieved when the authorities stepped in to say what they were doing was against the law despite the case being overturned in the appeal, but the power they held got to their heads, leading Microsoft to shoot itself in the foot by not making big strides or changes once Netscape was gone which brought to the world Firefox in its demise.
This documentary showed me that even when one company gets to the top, there’s always a crack in the wall to overtake them. Google and Firefox were growing and expanding in the market pushing Microsoft down from its original 96% down to 60% of the World’s Browser Market Share. It’s almost ironic how much work Microsoft put in just to be surpassed once more by younger companies that were actually passionate to make the internet run better.
That’s all for now folks!
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