There are not a lot of software applications able to have that many users, and it just happened so quickly. The downside is that it could vanish overnight. You have to keep up.
Predictor: Andreessen, Marc
Prediction, in context:The following was taken from a transcript of a video interview of Marc Andreessen, conducted for the Smithsonian Institution by David K. Allison, curator of the division of information technology and society at the National Museum of American History: ”[The rapid acceptance of Netscape] really illustrates not only broad interest in the Internet, but also the sheer number of people using it. It’s really significant when you look at the numbers. I think we have about six million Navigator users now, and those are the ones on the public network. That’s not counting people behind firewalls who we can’t see. The interesting thing is that those numbers are far in excess of many of the figures you hear in the computer industry. The subscriber rates right now, for example, are approximately that. There are not a lot of software applications able to have that many users, and it just happened so quickly. The downside is that it could vanish overnight. You have to keep up.”
Biography:Marc Andreessen worked with Eric Bina at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in 1992, to develop a browser that would be usable on any computer, easy to use and graphically rich. In 1993, their browser, Mosaic, completely changed the face of the Internet Ð it allowed HTML “image” tags which make it so text and art can appear on the same page; it allowed easy text scrolling; and it introduced hyperlinks, allowing users to simply click on an area of the screen to go to another document on the Internet. In1994, Mosaic was developed and marketed; the product eventually was named Netscape. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: June 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories
Title, headline, chapter name: Marc Andreessen
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist/ma1.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Allen, Patrick J.