Mosaic, Marc Andreessen, and Eric J. Bina
Urbana, Champaign County, Illinois
Marker Inscription
Web browser. Mosaic, the first popular graphical browser for the world wide web, was created by Marc L. Andreessen and Eric J. Bina at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Upon its 1993 release to the public, Mosaic gave internet users easy access to multimedia sources of information. Web browsers have transformed the exchange of information.
Erected by University of Illinois
The Story
In 1993, two developers at the University of Illinois's National Center for Supercomputing Applications released Mosaic, the first browser to weave images and text into a single point-and-click window onto the young World Wide Web. Before Mosaic, the internet was largely the domain of specialists typing commands; afterward, anyone could wander it. The graphical browser it pioneered became the template for every web experience that followed.
Why it matters
Mosaic turned an obscure research network into a mass medium, seeding the commercial internet and the digital transformation of American life.
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Related people
- · Marc L. Andreessen
- · Eric J. Bina
Related events
- · 1993 release of Mosaic browser
Themes & tags
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