4 ms·

I would be curious to see how well browser brand names have associated/resonated with the average computer users over time. I know my mom uses chrome because I

I would be curious to see how well browser brand names have associated/resonated with the average computer users over time. I know my mom uses chrome because I made it her default web browser and hid explorer. However she doesn't refer to it as chrome, just "the web".

whoopdedo 12y ago
I've lost count of the number of times I asked someone what browser they used and was told "Yahoo."
- TallGuyShort 12y ago
  Maybe Yahoo Axis really is that popular.
- gagege 12y ago
  About 4 years ago (note: not 14 years ago) my boss at the time told me "AOL" when I asked him that question. Immediately I thought he was joking, then I thought he must be mistaken and was telling me what his homepage was by accident. But then, to my horror, he showed it to me, and I realized he was completely correct. He was using some ugly purple "modern" version of an AOL browser that I didn't even know existed.
  - smacktoward 12y ago
    > He was using some ugly purple "modern" version of an AOL browser that I didn't even know existed. That was probably Netscape 6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_6), or Netscape 7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_%28version_7%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_%28version_7%29), the two versions of Netscape that AOL managed to squeeze out after acquiring them before giving up on the "Netscape" brand entirely and laying all the developers off. The thought back then was that there would be a "Mozilla" brand working on the core browser tech as open source code that was strictly for developers, while AOL would take Mozilla tech and use it to periodically release consumer-facing browsers under the brand "Netscape." This turned out not to work in practice, since the main contributions AOL would make in turning Mozilla into Netscape revolved taking a perfectly useful browser and making it less useful. (An example: Mozilla included a pop-up blocker, but AOL disabled it in their "Netscape" builds. Yes.) AOL/Netscape ought to be a business school case study in how to completely demolish the value of a brand after paying out the nose for it.
    - dchest 12y ago
      AOL Browser is not Netscape http://discover.aol.com/aoldesktop97/ http://discover.aol.com/aoldesktop97/
    - blumkvist 12y ago
      That AOL/TimeWarner merger tho...
  - prawn 12y ago
    Interestingly, AOL is not archived here: http://browsers.evolt.org/ http://browsers.evolt.org/ I do remember it, and WebTV, being two thorns in a web developer's sides back then.
userbinator 12y ago
I'd say that Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and many of the other browser names are nowhere near as descriptive as Internet Explorer. I know people who refer to IE as "the internet", and it's not very hard to make that association since "internet" is in its name.

whoopdedo 12y ago

I've lost count of the number of times I asked someone what browser they used and was told "Yahoo."

TallGuyShort 12y ago
Maybe Yahoo Axis really is that popular.
gagege 12y ago
About 4 years ago (note: not 14 years ago) my boss at the time told me "AOL" when I asked him that question. Immediately I thought he was joking, then I thought he must be mistaken and was telling me what his homepage was by accident. But then, to my horror, he showed it to me, and I realized he was completely correct. He was using some ugly purple "modern" version of an AOL browser that I didn't even know existed.
- smacktoward 12y ago
  > He was using some ugly purple "modern" version of an AOL browser that I didn't even know existed. That was probably Netscape 6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_6), or Netscape 7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_%28version_7%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_%28version_7%29), the two versions of Netscape that AOL managed to squeeze out after acquiring them before giving up on the "Netscape" brand entirely and laying all the developers off. The thought back then was that there would be a "Mozilla" brand working on the core browser tech as open source code that was strictly for developers, while AOL would take Mozilla tech and use it to periodically release consumer-facing browsers under the brand "Netscape." This turned out not to work in practice, since the main contributions AOL would make in turning Mozilla into Netscape revolved taking a perfectly useful browser and making it less useful. (An example: Mozilla included a pop-up blocker, but AOL disabled it in their "Netscape" builds. Yes.) AOL/Netscape ought to be a business school case study in how to completely demolish the value of a brand after paying out the nose for it.
  - dchest 12y ago
    AOL Browser is not Netscape http://discover.aol.com/aoldesktop97/ http://discover.aol.com/aoldesktop97/
  - blumkvist 12y ago
    That AOL/TimeWarner merger tho...
- prawn 12y ago
  Interestingly, AOL is not archived here: http://browsers.evolt.org/ http://browsers.evolt.org/ I do remember it, and WebTV, being two thorns in a web developer's sides back then.

userbinator 12y ago

I'd say that Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and many of the other browser names are nowhere near as descriptive as Internet Explorer. I know people who refer to IE as "the internet", and it's not very hard to make that association since "internet" is in its name.