Browsers: How we got from the web to AI

@Mark Ollig

At CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee was working as a software engineer in 1990.

By the end of 1990, he had written the first code for a combined web browser and web page editor using a NeXT computer workstation, built by NeXT Computer, a company founded by Apple co‑founder Steve Jobs.

Berners-Lee’s first browser was called WorldWideWeb and later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion with the “World Wide Web” itself.

He also created Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to organize webpages and developed Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to share them across the internet.

He wrote the code for Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and configured the first web server on a NeXT workstation at CERN.

Built specifically for the NeXT computer workstation, Nexus never reached the mainstream PC market and was discontinued in 1994.

Netscape Communications introduced Netscape Navigator in 1994. The browser helped make the web a place for business and soon became popular with early users. AOL stopped updating Navigator 9 March 1, 2008.

1993: Mosaic makes the web visual

In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications released Mosaic, the first browser to make the web truly graphical by displaying images alongside text. Its development ended with version 3.0 Jan. 7, 1997.

1994: Netscape arrives

Netscape Communications launched Netscape Navigator in 1994.

It helped turn the web into a commercial platform and quickly became a favorite among early users before AOL ended updates for Navigator 9 March 1, 2008.

1995: Microsoft enters the browser market

Microsoft joined the browser market Aug. 16, 1995, when it introduced Internet Explorer through the Plus! add-on for Windows 95.

After years of dominance, Internet Explorer reached the end of the road when Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer 11 June 15, 2022.

In February 2023, Microsoft permanently disabled the desktop app and steered users to Microsoft Edge.

1996 to 2013: Opera’s evolution

Opera Software, a Norwegian company, released Opera 2.0 in 1996 as a shareware alternative to Netscape and Internet Explorer.

In 2003, Opera 7.0 introduced the Presto layout engine, which supported emerging web standards and powered the Opera Mini browser on mobile devices.

In 2013, Opera retired the Presto-based version and adopted Google’s Blink engine. Opera remains available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

2000s: Users shift away from Internet Explorer

In the 2000s, users moved away from Internet Explorer, seeking better standards support, tabs, improved security, faster performance, and fewer browser-specific pages.

2003: Safari launches

Apple introduced Safari Jan. 7, 2003, at Macworld Expo for Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), Apple’s desktop operating system at the time.

It featured built-in Google search, improved bookmarks, pop-up blocking, and a SnapBack feature, marking Apple’s move away from Internet Explorer as the default Mac browser. Safari continues to be supported.

2004: Firefox 1.0

The Mozilla Foundation released Firefox 1.0 Nov. 9, 2004, as a free, faster alternative to Internet Explorer for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

It offered tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, built-in search, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, live bookmarks, fraud protection, and add-ons. Firefox remains supported.

2007: The iPhone puts the web in your hand

At Macworld in San Francisco Jan. 9, 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone as a groundbreaking internet device running Safari.

He described it as a breakthrough that put a fully usable web browser in people’s hands for the first time.

2008: Chrome changes everything

Google released the Chrome beta for Windows Sept. 2, 2008. The V8 engine made JavaScript run faster by compiling it into machine code. Chrome also kept tabs separate, so if one crashed, the others stayed open.

That same day, Google released Chrome’s source code as the open-source Chromium project, which later became the shared base for browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Brave.

2012: Chrome expands to mobile

Google released Chrome for Android Beta Feb. 7, 2012, for devices running Android 4.0.

Google launched Chrome for iPhone and iPad June 28, 2012, enabling cross-device sync. Samsung Internet launched in 2012 as the default browser on Galaxy devices and remains Samsung’s main mobile browser.

2013: Blink arrives

In 2013, Google introduced Blink, a rendering engine that converts website code into the text, images, and buttons you see on-screen.

Blink now powers the Chromium-based browsers that dominate modern web use, including Edge, Opera, and Brave.

2015 to 2020: Edge and the Chromium transition

Microsoft launched Edge in 2015 with Windows 10, replacing Internet Explorer as its modern browser.

Edge continues to receive updates. Vivaldi 1.0, released April 6, 2016, by Vivaldi Technologies in Oslo, Norway, remains supported.

The Brave browser, which blocks ads and trackers by default, launched in 2016. Version 1.0 arrived in 2019 for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux, and Brave remains supported.

In December 2018, Microsoft announced plans to rebuild Edge using Chromium to improve compatibility.

The new Microsoft Edge was released Jan. 15, 2020. Internet Explorer 11 was the final version of Internet Explorer.

Microsoft now directs users to Edge, which includes Internet Explorer (IE) mode for legacy websites and apps and is expected to remain available through at least 2029.

2024 to 2026: Artificial intelligence (AI) becomes part of the browser

In 2024, the Browser Company launched Arc Search for iPhone, a mobile browser with AI-powered search features. Arc Search remains supported.

AI is now built into many web browsers, letting users summarize pages, compare tabs, draft text, fill out forms, and get step-by-step guidance without leaving the browser.

In 2025, San Francisco-based Perplexity AI introduced Comet, an AI-powered browser for web research, page summaries, organization, and online tasks. Comet remains supported.

In Microsoft Edge, Copilot AI can summarize webpages, videos, and Portable Document Format (PDF) files, surfacing key points without extra searching.

Copilot also works inside Microsoft Word, where it can answer questions about a document, draft and rewrite text, and help shape rough ideas into polished paragraphs.

Google’s Gemini AI in Chrome acts like a helper that sits beside the page you’re viewing. It can explain a confusing paragraph, clarify an idea, or boil a long article down to its key points.

If you allow it, Gemini can also look at your other open tabs to understand what other tasks you are working on.

This year, Samsung extended its browser beyond mobile with Samsung Browser for Windows. Its AI features can summarize, analyze, and compare information across multiple tabs.

This year: Browser market share

Statcounter reported that, in April of this year, the leading web browsers worldwide were Chrome (68.02%), Safari (17.04%), Edge (5.53%), and Firefox (2.26%).

WebRTC and the shift to remote life

Web Real-Time Communication, or WebRTC, is the open-source technology behind live voice, video, and data in modern browsers.

Google introduced it in 2011, and it became a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard in 2021.

WebRTC is built into current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge on both desktop and mobile devices, and can be used without installing any extra plug-ins or add-ons.

When many of us moved to online life during COVID-19, WebRTC was needed for business meetings, virtual classrooms, telehealth appointments, and staying connected with family and friends.

The continuing transition toward AI-powered browsing marks the beginning of a new era in how we use the web and experience the internet.

Cable television started with only a few channels

@Mark Ollig

In the late 1940s, people in many small towns struggled to get good television reception because broadcast towers were too far away, or hills and mountains blocked the signals.

In 1948, John Walson Sr. of Mahanoy City, PA, found a practical way to improve local television reception.

He ran Army-surplus, heavy-duty twin-lead cable from a mountain antenna into town, creating an early cable television system.

The system brought in clear signals from channels 3, 6, and 10 out of Philadelphia and helped him sell more television sets at his appliance store.

“One of the things that got me interested in going into cable TV in a large way was the crowd that gathered in front of my store,” Walson said during a July 21, 1970, oral history interview conducted at his Service Electric Cable TV office, formerly his appliance store.

“When I first put those three channels on, the street was completely blocked with viewers, people watching the pictures in the window,” Walson Sr. said.

In 1948, Ed Parsons of Astoria, OR, built one of the first community antenna television, or CATV, systems in the United States.

At the time, Parsons owned a local radio station and set up a small receiving antenna system atop the Astoria Hotel. He later described it as a system of multiple Yagi antennas.

The Yagi-Uda antenna, developed in Japan in the 1920s by Shintaro Uda and Hidetsugu Yagi, is directional. Its metal elements help focus reception on a single source, making it effective for pulling in weak, distant television signals, such as KRSC-TV in Seattle, about 125 miles away.

“I found a usable signal up on the top of the Astoria Hotel,” Parsons recalled in his June 19, 1986, oral history interview.

Parsons used copper-conductor coaxial cable, amplifiers, and a community antenna to deliver the distant signal to nearby homes. Each household did not need its own antenna because the shared system received the signal and distributed it by cable.

The Minneapolis Times identified very high frequency, or VHF, channels 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9 for the Twin Cities market April 26, 1948.

KSTP-TV, Channel 5, launched the following day and became Minnesota’s first commercial television station.

From 1948 to 1952, the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, put a pause on approving new television stations to keep up with the industry’s rapid growth.

During this time, channel assignments were shuffled, and some were reserved for educational use.

In the Twin Cities, Channel 7 was dropped from the commercial lineup, Channel 2 was designated for education, and VHF channels 4, 5, 9, and 11 were left for commercial television.

From 1952 to 1983, US ultra-high frequency, or UHF, television operated on channels 14 through 83, spanning the 470 to 890 megahertz, or MHz, band.

In the early 1980s, companies began experimenting with subscription television services delivered over UHF broadcast channels.

Subscribers needed decoder boxes because the broadcasts were scrambled.

Spectrum began broadcasting Sept. 22, 1982, on KTMA-TV, Channel 23, in the Twin Cities, offering scrambled subscription programming.

Its Spectrum Sports package included Minnesota Twins baseball and Minnesota North Stars hockey games.

In 1983, the FCC reallocated UHF channels 70 through 83 from television to land mobile radio services, including public safety, early cellular testing, and trunked radio.

A trunked radio system is a computer-controlled two-way radio network that lets many users share a small pool of radio frequencies.

Twin Cities Spectrum subscriptions peaked at 27,000 in May 1983, then fell to 13,000 by 1985 as cable competition grew and the Minnesota Twins and North Stars did not renew their sports contracts.

Spectrum’s movie service ended Sept. 29, 1985, and Spectrum shut down entirely a week later after broadcasting the Twins’ final regular-season game.

After Spectrum closed, KTMA-TV Channel 23 returned to being a free over-the-air station, so viewers no longer needed a decoder box.

In 1986, KTMA-TV switched to independent programming, showing reruns, movies, and local shows.

KTMA-TV premiered “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” or MST3K, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 1988.

KTMA-TV filed for bankruptcy in 1989, was sold, and was rebranded as KLGT in 1992.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, cable companies began replacing many long coaxial trunk and feeder cables with fiber while keeping coaxial cable for the final connection to neighborhoods and homes.

In a traditional cable system, trunk cables carried signals over longer distances through the main network, while feeder cables branched out through neighborhoods toward customer drop lines.

These hybrid fiber-coaxial systems increased capacity and reliability, helping cable systems evolve from one-way television delivery into broadband internet, voice, and data networks.

By the late 1990s, many cable systems had become two-way networks capable of handling video, internet, and phone services.

After the 2009 digital conversion, KTMA-TV’s old analog UHF Channel 23, 524 to 530 MHz, was no longer the station’s actual broadcast frequency.

WUCW, the successor to KTMA-TV, still appeared to viewers as Channel 23, but that was only the on-screen, or virtual, channel number. Its actual digital broadcast signal was carried on UHF Channel 22, 518 to 524 MHz.

By 2026, voice and video were largely Internet Protocol, or IP, applications, sent as data packets over fiber, coaxial cable, satellite, and wireless networks alongside other digital content.

As of May of this year, channels 14 through 36, spanning 470 to 608 MHz, make up the current US UHF television range.

John Walson Sr., born John Walsonavich, died March 27, 1993, at 78.

Leroy “Ed” Parsons died May 1, 1989, at 82.

In the late 1940s, cable TV provided only a few broadcast channels.

Today, viewers have access to hundreds of channels and streaming services through modern coaxial, fiber, satellite, and internet-based networks.

An AI-assisted photographic collage by Mark Ollig illustrates the historical 

evolution of cable television, moving from early community antenna systems 

and rooftop arrays to analog sets and decoder boxes. The work, created through

OpenAI image generation, depicts the transition of the industry into modern

AI-generated collage showing the evolution of cable television from early community antenna systems.

Technology: reliability and customer confidence

@Mark Ollig

Over the past 50-plus years, telecommunications has undergone remarkable change.

Before electronic telephone central-office switching systems were introduced, many local telephone exchanges used electromechanical relay switches that were strictly analog and loud.

The GTE-Leich (pronounced “like”) electromechanical switch I worked with provided dial tone and routed local and long-distance calls through its line finders, selector links, hundreds group connectors, and associated relay circuits.

Those components were mounted on jack-in relay bars, which were plugged into wired backplanes, connecting each unit to the main office cable wiring.

Small 30-volt Sylvania wire-lead lamps on various links served as visual indicators.

I can still see those lamps glowing and hear the relays clicking on vertical bars inside the metal-framed cabinets in the dial room.

Aside from growing up in the telephone business, my formal technical foundation began in the late 1970s with a telecommunications degree from Wadena Technical College.

When I went to work for the local telephone company, I spent much of my time in the field splicing cables, climbing poles, installing aerial cable using a process we called lashing, and running aerial and buried telephone drops to homes and businesses.

When the phone company still leased its phones, the job included installing, repairing, and maintaining telephones and related equipment, such as extension phones and ringers.

There were also payphones to maintain, along with lines to troubleshoot when customers experienced noise, a hum, or no dial tone.

The work changed from day to day, which kept things interesting.

Over the years, my role ranged from wiring and soldering to programming, calling translations, and routes, along with hardware maintenance and software upgrades.

Before cellphones, cable TV, phone service, or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), people depended on their hard-wired telephone as their main lifeline.

After summer storms, we were outside repairing lines that had been knocked down by wind or damaged by falling branches and lightning strikes.

On blowing-snow, subzero winter days and nights, troubleshooting could mean climbing an icy telephone pole or digging out a snow-buried pedestal so a business, a house in town, or a country farmhouse could make and receive calls again.

By the mid-1980s, my work also involved digital switching platforms and programming call-routing translations on a keyboard and video display unit (VDU).

By 1998, while working at TDS Telecom, I was installing and maintaining T1/DS1 and Primary Rate Interface (PRI) circuits used to transport voice and data, while working with Signaling System 7 (SS7) trunk-circuit signaling for call setup and routing.

Starting the same year, the telephone company began installing Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, internet service over existing copper telephone pairs.

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, or ADSL, provided homes with faster downloads than dial-up, while High-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line, or HDSL, provided businesses with dedicated T1-class voice and data circuits.

On-premises private branch exchange (PBX) systems have largely given way to hosted IP PBX (HPBX) and other cloud calling platforms, which provide business phone features without requiring customers to maintain their own switching hardware.

VoIP brought me into programming softswitches, short for software switches, that handled customers’ local and long-distance calling over IP-based networks.

The Metaswitch platform I worked on is a softswitch, a software-based, programmable telephone switch that carries voice calls over internet-based networks using VoIP.

Operating a softswitch also involves programming routers, managing servers, and maintaining the software that keeps the whole system working.

Before I retired, I helped decommission many legacy digital switches as softswitches were replaced by newer telephone switching equipment.

As telecommunications networks expanded beyond copper, the transport infrastructure moved from T1 digital carriers and DS3 lines running at 44.736 megabits per second to gigabit fiber-optic systems.

These fiber systems used Synchronous Optical Network, or SONET, technology to carry voice, data, and video at speeds up to 40 gigabits per second.

Later networks adopted Optical Transport Network standards to handle data-heavy traffic at 100 gigabits per second and beyond, now reaching 400 and 800 gigabits per second, and even 1.6 terabits per second.

In typical fiber-optic internet service, an Optical Line Terminal, or OLT, at the provider sends data as light pulses through glass fiber.

At the home or business, an Optical Network Terminal, or ONT, converts those light pulses for the customer’s router or Wi-Fi equipment and serves as the handoff point between the provider and customer.

Data moving across the world’s networks is now measured in exabytes each month, with one exabyte equal to 1 billion gigabytes.

These networks carry email, web pages, social media, voice calls, video streams, banking, commerce, cloud applications, business data, artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, and data-center traffic.

Despite all the technological advances, the true value of telecommunications still lies in reliability and customer confidence that the network will work when needed.