Mosaic could become the standard front end to the Net, a universal gateway to the entire stream of digital information … The momentum toward a global data environment will create an insatiable demand for Mosaic Communications’s proprietary browser. Mosaic, in this scenario, is the DOS/Windows of cyberspace, an achievement that would make its young creators the new millennium’s first computer zillionaires.
Predictor: Andreessen, Marc
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Wired magazine about the Internet’s latest killer app, Mosaic, Gary Wolf quotes Mosaic/Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen. Wolf writes: ”Andreessen believes that Mosaic could become the standard front end to the Net, a universal gateway to the entire stream of digital information. The young developer hopes that the momentum toward a global data environment will create an insatiable demand for Mosaic Communications’s proprietary browser. Mosaic, in this scenario, is the DOS/Windows of cyberspace, an achievement that would make its young creators the new millennium’s first computer zillionaires. Of course, there are a few barriers standing in the way, not least of which is the real-life Bill Gates, who is hardly prepared to cede the field. Microsoft has its own ideas about the front end of the Net. Gates is working with cable mogul John Malone to design a set-top box that will control digital televisions attached to the coaxial wires owned by the cable industry. In the short term, Microsoft is casually announcing that the new version of its Windows operating system will be ‘Internet-ready, right out of the box.’ Such promises may be mere braggadocio, but the young Mosaic developers know that in leaving the world of the Internet and going after the desktop market they are poaching on the estates of powerful industry notables. When they describe the future of Mosaic, Bill Gates is never far from their minds. ‘Microsoft, what are they going to do?’ asks Andreessen. ‘The moment Microsoft jumps in, the rules change.'”
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: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun: Don’t Look Now, But Prodigy, AOL, and CompuServe Are All Suddenly Obsolete – and Mosaic is Well on its Way to Becoming the World’s Standard Interface
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/mosaic_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney