That seems a bit chicken-and-the-egg-y though: if the web didn't become a global phenomenon then there would be far less interest in improving the browsers, far

That seems a bit chicken-and-the-egg-y though: if the web didn't become a global phenomenon then there would be far less interest in improving the browsers, far less business need for programmers, and far fewer people working on whatever they'd be working on if they weren't working on browsers.