With the rise of the World Wide Web there was the creation of browsers. A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. It is able to get this information because the information is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). With the URL the browser is able to find any piece of information be it a web page, image, video or other piece of content.
The first full-text Web search engine was WebCrawler in 1994 since before WebCrawler, only Web page titles were searched. However, the first web browser was invented in 1990 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. It was originally called WorldWideWeb but and was later renamed Nexus so as not to be confused with his Hypertext Project. In 1993, Marc Andreessen released his browser software called Mosaic (later Netscape) which would become the "the world's first popular browser" and also made World Wide Web system easier to use and more accessible to the average person. From Andreesen's browser idea sparked the internet boom of the 1990s and the “Browser Wars.” As of today the major web browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.
The Browser Wars, a metaphorical term referring to the competitions between Browsers for dominance via usage, started after 1993 when Marc Andreessen released his browser software called Mosaic (later Netscape) which would become the "the world's first popular browser" and also made World Wide Web system easier to use and more accessible to the average person. From Andreesen's browser idea sparked the internet boom of the 1990s and the “Browser Wars.” Microsoft responded with its Internet Explorer in 1995, also heavily influenced by Mosaic, initiating the industry's first browser war. Opera debuted in 1996 but has never achieved widespread use. In 1998, Netscape launched the Mozilla browser that would eventually evolve into Firefox. Apple's Safari was released in April of 2011. The most recent addition to the browser market is Google Chrome, released in September 2008. In December 2011, Chrome overtook Internet Explorer 8 as the most widely used web browser. As of today the major web browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.
The war still continues today and there is now a new front to concur as the mobile web evolves. As more widespread use of smartphones and other mobile devices has occurred the focus for these browsers has to become mobile. Currently, WebKit has become the most dominant layout engine so far since Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera — have a poorer experience when viewing most mobile versions of Web sites.