Erwise was the first graphical web browser, developed by four Finnish students in 1991 and released in 1992. It had unique features, such as loading multiple pages at once and built-in text search. Development stalled due to inadequate funding and the ailing Finnish economy.
The first graphical Web browser was called Erwise, an application written for Unix computers running the Windows X System. It was developed by Kim Nyberg, Kari Sydänmaanlakka, Teemu Rantanen and Kati Borgers, four undergraduate students who attended Helsinki University of Technology in Finland. The project started in 1991 and was released in April 1992. Erwise is widely recognized as a pioneering program and is the forerunner of the modern Internet browser.
Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, was instrumental in developing the first graphical web browser. Berners-Lee realized that a browser with a graphical user interface would make the web much easier to use for browsing the Internet. Believing the concept would be an ideal student project, he made numerous inquiries to potential developers around the world.
Berners-Lee’s request was granted by Ari Lemmke, the instructor who supervised the four students who ultimately built the browser. The four Finnish students developed a graphical, point-and-click browser with numerous features that would not appear until much later. Their work was inspired by Robert Cailliau, the Belgian computer scientist best known for working with Berners-Lee to develop the World Wide Web.
As the first graphical web browser, Erwise had many unique qualities. Among them was its ability to load multiple pages at once. For example, users can click a hyperlink that automatically opens another window with the linked web page. In fact, Erwise had a number of features that Mosaic lacked, including built-in text search that could be performed from any web page. Mosaic, the first graphical web browser that helped popularize the web, is still widely recognized for having laid the foundation that modern browsers would follow.
Development of the first graphical web browser stalled after its creators graduated and moved on to other endeavors. Berners-Lee made a trip to Finland in an effort to encourage the student group to continue their work on the project. Unfortunately for Erwise, the group could not proceed with development due to inadequate funding. It has been said that Berners-Lee would have liked to continue the project himself, but he could not because the code was written entirely in Finnish.
Erwise was considered by many to be ahead of his time. Despite the innovation and promise of the first graphical web browser offered, it was never commercialized. Ultimately, its interruption is generally believed to be attributed to the ailing state of the Finnish economy during the development period.
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