Markham Lee_

Browser Wars: What Are They Good For?

For those that say the browser wars are about money, I ask again: did the winner of the last browser war benefit financially from it? Back in the '90s the expectation was that the winner of the browser war would effectively "own" the Window to the Internet, and as a result would easily be able to monetize that advantage.

This turned out to be a pipe dream as the winner of the browser war didn't benefit financially in the end, and now finds itself investing more in the browser to keep up with an upstart.

The newest entrant in the war has other things in mind and could "conceivably" benefit, but what is more likely to happen is that multiple companies will spend tens of millions of dollars to develop products that will converge (in a sense) in terms of capabilities and in the end, see little benefit.

14 years after Netscape and no software company has really been able to show the financial advantage of having the dominant browser.

My techie side is excited in terms of seeing new technology, but my more practical investor side is rather unimpressed.


-M