It was definitely the late '90s, everyone was trying to copy the IE3 flat toolbar look. There was even an article in the August 1997 issue of Microsoft Systems

It was definitely the late '90s, everyone was trying to copy the IE3 flat toolbar look. There was even an article in the August 1997 issue of Microsoft Systems Journal about it: https://web.archive.org/web/20060910223400/http://www.microsoft.com/msj/0897/c0897.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20060910223400/http://www.micros...