Nexus was a graphical user interface (GUI) that allowed users to view text on web pages. The first step in this journey came in 1990, when the legendary Tim Berners-Lee developed the first-ever web browser called “WorldWideWeb” – later renamed Nexus. In the early ’90s though, when the web was in its infancy, the crude, boxy interfaces were a revolutionary step in making the internet usable to people with access to a computer. Today, aside from the occasional pop-up box, we barely notice them.
Simply put, web browsers are the software applications that act as our portal to the internet. Today’s bar chart race video, by the YouTube channel Data is Beautiful, is a nostalgic look back at how people used to access the internet, from Mosaic to Chrome. Since the first rudimentary interfaces were created in the 1990s, a number of browsers have entered the market, with a select few achieving market dominance over our access to web content. Web browsers are a ubiquitous part of the internet experience and one of the most commonly used digital tools of the modern era. Internet Browser Market Share (1996–2019)