American History 1988
Chapter 301 - 291 Competitors

Chapter 301: Chapter 291 Competitors

Explorer browser has a competitor?

Well, browsers have always existed before Netscape, but those could hardly be called competitors.

Because their user experience was extremely poor, there was no dedicated team maintaining them, let alone updating their versions.

However, Explorer had a qualitative improvement, not only was it more graphically intensive, but it was also easier to use.

Explorer also had the support of Netscape; Teresa and her team were always providing customer support for this software.

Some bugs reported by users were recorded by Netscape and would be targeted for fixes in minor version updates.

It’s safe to say that Netscape was operating Explorer as a product, even though it wouldn’t bring any profit.

And all of this required costs: manpower, material resources, hardware facilities...

Without a doubt those miscellaneous browsers would not invest in these because their creators might just be amateur computer geeks.

Maybe they don’t even have a job, so where would the money come from to support the operations of a browser?

So when Teresa mentioned that Explorer had a competitor, both Dean and Clark were surprised, and a hint of caution arose in their hearts.

"Teresa, the competitor you mentioned, is it a browser that can match Explorer in terms of functionality?"

"Yes, Boss, its name is Mosaic browser."

"Mosaic?" Clark and Dean both instinctively repeated the name.

However, the former looked clueless, while the latter frowned slightly, as the name seemed vaguely familiar.

"This browser, like Explorer, supports the embedded display of images without needing to jump to a separate display window."

"A picture is worth a thousand words" has always been Explorer’s trump card distinguishing it from other browsers on the market, and its appeal is incomparable to that of dry text.

Why had the downloads of Explorer just a few days after its release exceeded 500 per day?

After three days, it doubled, with single-day download numbers breaking a thousand, and even that trend continued to grow?

A large part of the reason was that Explorer’s intuitive graphic interface and the function of inline image display were at work.

Now there was another browser that could do this? Dean and Clark took it very seriously.

"Do we have Mosaic browser installed here?"

Seeing is believing, Dean wanted to experience this software himself.

"Of course, Boss, I’ve already got it ready." Teresa opened another computer in the office.

Seeing the startup interface, which was different from the other computers, Dean raised his eyebrows.

He noticed something interesting, but Dean didn’t rush to ask; he wanted to try out the browser first.

"Look, Boss, this is Mosaic."

On the computer Teresa had just opened, a brand-new interface appeared in front of Dean and Clark.

It did not look like Explorer; it had its own design style, with deep blue lines dominating the interface.

The graphical function menu, while not as refined as Explorer’s, indeed implemented this kind of intuitive graphic display.

Clearly, this was not a copy of Explorer’s design, and Clark felt somewhat disappointed.

He thought it was time for Netscape to establish a legal department to deal with copycats similar to computer geeks; Silicon Valley had plenty of ways to handle them.

Dean wasn’t too surprised, because he knew that a browser that left an impression on him definitely couldn’t be obscure.

With pure imitation or plagiarism, apart from giant companies, it’s tough for ordinary people to make it popular.

However, before he had time to delve deeper, what popped up automatically on the web page left them both stunned.

"Price’s List?" Clark looked puzzled.

Dean also had a hard time holding back; Mosaic’s default homepage was actually Price’s List?

This...

For a moment, Dean didn’t know whether this was a good or bad thing.

But he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be at a loss anyway.

"Dean, does Price’s List have a partnership with this Mosaic browser?" Clark asked uncertainly.

"Of course not." Dean answered with certainty, "Currently, Price’s List only has a partnership with Netcom here in California.

Just like the Explorer browser, Netcom helps promote them; that’s all."

When it came to websites and browsers, Dean hadn’t yet invested all his resources.

For example, Price’s List, due to the internet’s popularity, targeted some big cities in America.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose—these places were where Simon and John first deployed official staff.

And as the main network operator here in California, Netcom has a large number of home users.

So having Price’s List as its official recommendation would undoubtedly speed up the expansion significantly.

The same logic applied to Netscape’s Explorer browser; Netcom is purely a service provider, it doesn’t offer online content.

That’s where Explorer came in timely; Netcom needed a kind of software that would make it easy for ordinary people to learn to surf the web.

Even with Explorer, Netcom no longer needed to arrange customer service to teach users how to use the internet.

Simply open the Explorer browser, its built-in Price’s List is enough for users to explore for half a month.

And if they could discover a new world, that would be even more incredible.

One might get hopelessly addicted to the net. That too is a possibility.

"So all this was Mosaic browser’s own initiative?" Clark also noticed this blind spot.

"I think so." Dean was no longer viewing Mosaic as a thorn in his side at this point.

Even though Explorer had a potential competitor, Price’s List also gained an invisible assistant.

So, did he lose out? Hmm, that’s a philosophical question.

"Alright, let’s first take a look at this Mosaic,"

Clark was more concerned about Netscape since he viewed the browser as his second career.

This Mosaic browser was just like Teresa had said, other than the interface and Explorer, the other functionalities were not much different.

Of course, because the Netscape team was strong enough, Explorer provided a smoother user experience and had a more attractive UI compared to Mosaic.

"Dean, Mosaic is a threat." Just two minutes later, Clark came to this conclusion.

There might indeed be a difference in the user experience, but Mosaic was no less capable than Explorer.

It wasn’t enough to create an unbridgeable gap between the two, meaning there was a significant chance Mosaic could catch up to Explorer.

As for the final outcome, that depended on the strength of the competing team.

But in any case, they could already be considered a threat.

"You’re right, Jim, Mosaic could indeed become our competitor.

But have you noticed, Mosaic chose the wrong track."

"What?" Clark and Teresa hadn’t yet realized where the problem lay.

"Here," Dean pointed at the screens of the two computers, "their development platforms are different."

"Oh~" At that moment, Clark noticed the operating systems on the two computers were different.

"Mosaic is developed based on the Unix system, while our Explorer is targeted at the Windows system."

Clark seemed to understand something, "So Explorer will be more popular?"

"80% of the home computers and commercial company computers on the market use the Windows system."

Teresa added from the side, realizing what Dean meant by "Mosaic chose the wrong track."

"I think you’ve guessed it." Dean smiled, "Although the Unix system is also widely used, it’s not mainstream.

And if I’m not mistaken, the team developing the Mosaic browser likely comes from some specialist organization.

Only these places are still using Unix systems in large numbers because they are more stable and reliable."

Under Dean’s gaze, Teresa nodded in admiration, "You’re correct, Boss. It’s from NCSA."

Teresa opened the help page of the Mosaic browser, where there was contact information and copyright holder details.

"University of Illinois..." Dean and Clark nodded in understanding, it was an academic institution.

"Alright, guys, it’s not too late for anything." Dean clapped his hands to draw their attention.

"While they haven’t realized yet, let’s accelerate the promotion of Explorer on the Windows system.

Additionally, Teresa, how is our development progress on Unix and Mac systems?"

The Explorer browser was first released for Windows, but Dean wasn’t about to neglect the other two platforms either.

Because computers using Unix and Mac systems still accounted for a considerable proportion of the market.

Development of these two platforms could be delayed, but it was not to be absent.

"According to the plan, Unix will be released in two weeks, Mac might take a month."

The entire development team was managed by Teresa, and she also allocated the development tasks.

"How long has the Mosaic browser been out?" Dean continued to inquire.

"Just three days."

"How about the download count?"

"It started with a hundred-plus, now it has reached over three hundred per day."

"Snap!" Dean snapped his fingers, "Divide our development team into three groups.

Windows, Unix, Mac proceed simultaneously, and also, give Unix higher priority.

By next week at the latest, the Unix version of Explorer must be released, and let’s push Mac up to two weeks ahead.

If we’re short-handed, Byte Company can provide support first, but I want to see Explorer launched on all platforms as soon as possible."

"Understood, Boss!" Teresa immediately took notes of Dean’s instructions.

Originally planning to let Explorer spread slowly to save on operational costs, Dean now had no choice but to change strategies.

Having a competitor provided a driving force to move forward, even if this meant that Netscape’s operational costs would rise.

"By the way, any user feedback on the Explorer browser?"

A week had passed, and the download numbers were fairly objective; Dean thought some feedback ought to have come in.

Teresa flipped through her work journal, "Users have a very good opinion of Explorer.

But some wish for a printer plugin feature for the browser so they can directly print content from the web pages."

"And..." Teresa turned another page, "many questions are about Price’s List."

"Price’s List?" Dean asked, puzzled.

"Yes, Boss. Since Explorer set Price’s List as the homepage, many users think we’re responsible for it."

"Alright, what’s the issue?" Dean decided to listen and then convey it to Simon and the others.

"Uh..." Teresa hesitated a bit, "Some users asked us... no, they asked Price’s List.

They’re asking when Price’s List would provide that kind of service in New York?"

"What service?" Dean inquired curiously.

"It’s that kind of..." Teresa was a bit embarrassed, "Service similar to what ’Escort Finder’ offers."

"Got it~" Dean and Clark nodded earnestly.

"I’ll pass it on to them, So..." Dean gestured towards the door, "I’ll head out now, I happen to be going over to Price’s List."

"OK, I’ve got Netscape covered." Clark assured confidently.