E-mail alone will keep driving the Internet’s growth. E-mail’s turned out to be the killer app. My definition of being on the Internet is having an Internet e-mail address.
Predictor: Andreessen, Marc
Prediction, in context:Mosaic originator Marc Andreessen made the following comment in a 1994 article in Network Computing Magazine: ”E-mail alone will keep driving the Internet’s growth. E-mail’s turned out to be the killer app. My definition of being on the Internet is having an Internet e-mail address. This is where you get the numbers of 20 million to 30 million users. If there’s broad consumer acceptance of a large proprietary closed system – large interactive systems or Microsoft’s Marvel or take your pick – the growth we see now may get sapped. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. The determining factor is how fast the Internet can move. How fast can software get deployed? How fast can it carry forward to compete with other environments?”
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: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: E-mail
Name of publication: Network Computing
Title, headline, chapter name: The Pattern of the Mosaic
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=6d004516cc820836cda7f66c5f136b21&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVlz-lSlzV&_md5=fa34f29c8a2e7cad415bce0edfdba183
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Allen, Patrick J.