Writeside Review: Netscape vs. Microsoft

The battle to control the Web.

If there was any remaining doubt about Microsoft's intention to become the dominant Internet player, this week's events have certainly dispelled it. The company announced back-to-back deals with AOL and CompuServe to makes its Internet Explorer the default browser on both services, reaching a current combined audience of more than 10 million. More significantly, these bundling arrangements call for AOL and CompuServe launch icons to be built into the next iteration of Windows 95, which will create a tight user loop between the Microsoft OS and online/Internet access right out of the box—precisely the situation that AOL and CompuServe decried last year, when MSN was the only service so favored.

Granted, both services will offer Netscape Navigator as an alternative browser. But the fact that Internet Explorer will be the default almost certainly means that it will soon surpass Navigator in market share. As Bill Gates discreetly put it during this week's Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference, "we do expect our share, which is fairly low today, to be very significant over the next year."

Gates also remarked at the conference that "we're hardcore about the Internet," and he obviously meant it. These new marketing arrangements are not about browsers, or even about browser marketing share. Rather, they are about the future direction of the Internet and who will determine it. The browser battle is just the opening skirmish in a war to determine whether Internet standards will remain open—or become a subset of Windows. Dan Rosen, senior director of Microsoft MSN Services, underscored the point in a March 13 interview with the Wall Street Journal by frankly stating "we would like our platform to be everywhere."

Microsoft has already released version 3 of Internet Explorer, which incorporates its ActiveX technologies (formerly known as "Sweeper") based on Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). OLE, of course, is the glue that holds Microsoft Office and other applications together by permitting the exchange of component parts (see our February 19 review of Apple's Cyberdog and its competing OpenDoc technology). By the end of the year, Microsoft plans to release an ActiveX-enabled version of Windows 95 which will permit tight integration of its desktop applications with the Internet. AOL, as part of its Microsoft licensing deal, will also support ActiveX technologies. (In a nod to open standards, AOL said it would support Java as well.)

Like it or not, from this point on the browser you choose casts a ballot in a larger, future-of-the-Net referendum. Choose Netscape—you'll sacrifice nothing in performance or amenities, and you'll be helping to keep the Internet open to its full potential.

(Reviewed March 15, 1996)

The Netscape Navigator logo is a registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation. © 1996 Netscape Communications Corporation.
The Microsoft Internet Explorer logo is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. © 1996 Microsoft Corporation.
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