American History 1988
Chapter 299 - 289 Mosaic

Chapter 299: Chapter 289 Mosaic

Ever since the birth of the browser, many technically skilled researchers had made slight improvements to Berners-Lee’s creation.

They were familiar with programming within the Unix system and began to optimize World Wide Web browsers according to personal preferences.

Consequently, a variant browser would be born and then distributed on shared BBS for other internet enthusiasts to use.

Among these early disseminators, these quirky browsers were further modified.

From ’91 to ’93, browsers gradually started spreading to mainstream universities or research institutions in America.

A team from the University of Illinois noticed this software, which could open a window to the internet.

Their office was located at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, or NCSA.

This organization was indeed related to the National Science Foundation (NSF), receiving considerable budget support from the latter.

The NCSA hired many graduate and undergraduate students from top universities, and due to geographical reasons, the University of Illinois was the main contributor.

After noticing the browser, the research team affiliated with the university tried to apply to Larry Smarr, the director of NCSA, for the task of developing this software.

As part of the organization, they needed to find something to do.

It was like some university professors, who must have a certain number of patent applications each year.

Only with "achievements" up to standard could they apply for more funding the following year.

Larry Smarr quickly agreed to the plan upon receiving the application, although he knew very little about the internet.

He was a physicist, and his area of expertise was elsewhere.

Such an application should have been rejected or set aside, but Smarr had his ulterior motives.

He wanted to develop new uses for the research center’s excess computing power to justify the existence of NCSA.

And if these projects yielded somewhat presentable results, then he could vie for more funding for other core research.

In plain terms, for both NCSA and the University of Illinois team, the browser project was just to make up numbers.

So they handed this underappreciated project to temporary employees of the team, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina.

Both were still students, barely considered temporary workers or interns at NCSA.

Their hourly wage was only $6.85, not even as substantial as the salary of a McDonald’s service worker.

Therefore, Anderson and Bina did not take the task too seriously.

To finish the task quickly, they decided to take a shortcut.

With so many browsers on the internet, just copy one and get it over with.

So, since last winter, Anderson and Bina had downloaded every browser they could find on the sharing websites.

"These browsers are too terrible, with a dizzying array of colors and fonts.

And the images need to be displayed in separate windows, not to mention being linked with the content.

So I made some small improvements to ensure it can run smoothly at least," Anderson began to show Bina the results of his work over the past two or three months.

"This looks much more pleasant to the eye now." Bina’s eyes lit up as he smoothly scrolled with the mouse.

It was simpler to use than other browsers and, most importantly, also implemented the feature of integrating text with images.

"Next, the client-side compression and packaging are up to you, Bina."

Although Anderson was extremely talented at programming, the browser could not possibly be completed by him alone.

Including him and Bina, there were a total of seven people responsible for developing this project.

Like Anderson, they were all students from the University of Illinois, temporarily hired by NCSA.

Of course, Anderson was the main force, Bina his capable assistant, who excelled in simplifying the software’s downloading and installation.

"Watch and learn, Mark. I’m going to give it a beautiful slimming down," Bina said as he took over the computer and typed "Mosaic" into the code.

Mosaic, the name of this browser, had been decided upon a long time ago.

"By the way, Mark, how are we going to promote the Mosaic browser afterward?" Bina asked after finishing the browser’s optimization, which would then be submitted to NCSA, thus completing their task.

Anderson was indifferent to his partner’s curiosity.

"Who cares, that’s Smarr’s problem. If all else fails, we’ll just put Mosaic on the sharing websites."

It was just an overlooked project, and NCSA had no plans to commercialize it.

So Anderson and his teammates planned to share Mosaic with other internet users after submitting the task.

In essence, they were computer geeks, deeply influenced by the "sharing spirit."

As for whether the browser would become a business? Sorry, Anderson and Bina never even considered it.

Having finally completed the software optimization, Bina was ready to take a coffee break when he was suddenly captivated by Anderson’s computer screen.

"Shit! Mark, with bombshells like that, how could you not share?" Bina exclaimed angrily as he grappled with tedious code.

Anderson, on the other hand, was hiding aside, his face lecherously sliding through images.

What he saw! A parade of scantily clad girls striking suggestive poses for the camera.

Oh~, those headlights sure are big! Bina felt a bit dizzy from the dazzle.

"I’m just testing Mosaic," Anderson defended himself with conviction.

However, Bina paid no attention to that, he shifted his chair, pushing Anderson aside, and snatched the mouse.

"I bet that a girl with a body like that comes from the land of the bears," Bina said as he critiqued the alluring photos on the webpage, no longer interested in work.

Under Anderson’s prompting, Bina continued to scroll through, and soon they found the girl’s information.

"She left her phone number, and marked a service fee of $75."

"Wait a minute!" Both men were stunned at the same time, then looked at each other, "Service fee?"

"Oh~" The expressions on Anderson and Bina’s faces began to grow perverted.

"Maybe we should make a call?" Bina was getting restless inside.

"Good idea." Anderson glanced at the picture on the webpage again, then secretly swallowed hard twice.

Action speaks louder than words, and Bina had already picked up the phone.

"But there are two of us." Bina suddenly hesitated again before dialing.

"We can always pay more!" Anderson said, not caring at all.

"Makes sense." Bina, following the phone number provided on the webpage, dialed it.

However, he hung up disappointed after a few words.

"Damn it, Mark, she said she only accepts jobs in Los Angeles!"

"Damn!" Anderson shook his head regretfully.

What a great lead, but unfortunately, it was out of their range.

"Aren’t there any girls from Illinois?" Bina, not giving up, turned his attention back to the computer.

He wanted to see if there were any other options, "By the way, Mark, what site is this?"

"Price’s List, a site that just started to appear recently."

Anderson had stumbled upon it on a sharing forum and was immediately drawn to the wide variety of sections on the website.

In fact, not just him—the site had a certain level of popularity on various BBS forums.

After all, with websites being so scarce worldwide, each new appearance would attract the attention of Internet users.

Tech geeks had even established a directory of websites, and Price’s List ranked quite high on it.

It was much richer in content and more professionally designed than those personal websites.

Therefore, it quickly stood out among dozens of others and became one of the most visited pages.

At first, Anderson thought Price’s List was just a lifestyle sharing site, until a tip from other netizens led him to the "Seeking Companionship" section.

"Bina, the real deal is right here." Anderson pointed to the words "Seeking Companionship" on the edge of the homepage.

They were designed in pink artistic fonts, with a silhouette of a voluptuous woman as a logo above them, easily leading one’s thoughts astray.

"Shit~" Now, Bina too had discovered this new territory.

If it weren’t for being in NCSA’s office, he might have been lost in it, unable to extricate himself.

"Mark, doesn’t Mosaic’s browser still need a default homepage?"

Originally, Bina and Anderson were planning on using the search tool Gopher as the first page for users.

But now they seemed to have another option, look, Price’s List’s homepage also has a search box.

"You mean Price’s List?" Anderson’s eyes lit up.

"Exactly, I think a lot of people would be interested in it." Bina moved the mouse over the pink "Seeking Companionship".

"Hehehe~" Both of them chuckled involuntarily.

...

"Is it really okay for Simon to do this?"

In the office of Price’s List, John was doubtful about one of Simon’s promotional tactics.

"Of course, there’s no problem," Simon shrugged innocently, "The Internet is free, there’s no federal or state law forbidding us from doing this."

"But..." John still cared a bit about their reputation, "advertising streetwalkers on Price’s List doesn’t seem to be good for our image if word gets out."

"We’re offering them a platform to promote themselves, and we’re not even charging them for advertising.

We’re doing charity work, John." Simon had a tricky angle; he thought he was doing a good deed.

"Look at those poor girls, they need business to make a living.

Besides, do you have a better suggestion on how to make Price’s List stand out quickly?

The click-through rate on the promotional emails we’ve sent out is still lacking a bit."

After learning from Dean that the number of netizens in America had surpassed five million, Simon got an idea.

Buffett was right, the real big business was making money from every ordinary person.

Though Price’s List wasn’t charging users, as long as there were enough visitors, advertisers would come to them.

Just like in Ohio, intermediary companies, rental ads, every single one of them meant money.

"But if this goes on for too long, it won’t be good for the reputation of Price’s List."

John’s concern was not unfounded; while this approach could attract a large number of users to Price’s List in the short term,

it was a double-edged sword, as it could create a stereotyped association between sleaze and Price’s List.

"Don’t worry, we haven’t used any explicit suggestive words on the relevant pages, everything is the users’ spontaneous actions.

Moreover, attracting users is just one of our goals; the ultimate target is to assist with the establishment of local branches in various cities.

As soon as the local user base is up to standard, we’ll restrict the traffic to the Seeking Companionship community, I promise."

For now, Price’s List had only maintained localized information in California and Ohio; other regions were still in a state of natural growth.

Simon wanted to use the Seeking Companionship section to drive traffic until the user base in a region grew rapidly to a certain level.

Then, they would hire local staff to carry out localized information gathering and updates.

After all, all of this required costs; without enough users, Price’s List couldn’t afford this expense.

Now, Simon’s promotional tactic was working, and it was even about to bring in two super boosts.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.