Internet Explorer 3

Internet Explorer 3
Developer(s)Microsoft
Initial release
  • Windows: August 13, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-08-13)
  • Mac OS: January 8, 1997; 27 years ago (1997-01-08)
Stable release
3.03 SP1 (3.03.3006) / August 1998; 26 years ago (1998-08)
Operating system
Platformx86, 68k, PPC, MIPS, Alpha AXP
Included withWindows 95 OSR2
PredecessorInternet Explorer 2 (1995)
SuccessorInternet Explorer 4 (1997)
TypeWeb browser
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.microsoft.com/IE/ Edit this on Wikidata

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 (IE3) is the third version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser which was announced in March 1996, and was released on August 13, 1996 by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and on January 8, 1997 for Apple Mac OS (see IE for Mac). It began serious competition against Netscape Navigator in the first Browser war.[1] It was Microsoft's first browser release with a major internal development component.[2] It was the first more widely used version of Internet Explorer, although it did not surpass Netscape or become the browser with the most market share. During its tenure, IE market share went from roughly 3–9% in early 1996 to 20–30% by the end of 1997.[3][4][5] In September 1997 it was superseded by Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.

IE3 was the first commercial browser with Cascading Style Sheets support.[6] It introduced support for ActiveX controls, Java applets, inline multimedia, and the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) system for content metadata. This version was the first version of Internet Explorer to use the blue 'e' logo, which later became a symbol of the browser. Version 3 came bundled with Internet Mail and News, NetMeeting, and an early version of the Windows Address Book. There were 16-bit and 32-bit versions depending on the OS.

This is the first version of Internet Explorer developed without Spyglass source code, but still used Spyglass technology, so the Spyglass licensing information remained in the program's documentation. In 1996 Microsoft said of its new browser "Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 adds many new features which are great for HTML authors and demonstrates our accelerating commitment to W3C HTML standards."[7]

It is the last version of Internet Explorer to support Windows NT 3.5 and Windows NT 4.0 RTM—SP2 and windows NT 4 for Risc (the 16 bit version can still be run through NTVDM)

Internet Explorer 3 is no longer supported, and is not available for download from Microsoft.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference windowsitpro.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ MacCormack, Alan. "How internet companies build software." MIT Sloan Management Review 42.2 (2001).
  3. ^ Jones Thompson, Maryann (8 October 1998). "Behind the numbers: Browser market share". CNN. Archived from the original on August 16, 2000. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  4. ^ Kubaitis, Ed (June 1996). "Browser Statistics for June 1996". Engineering Workstations Lab. University of Illinois. Archived from the original on 7 May 2001. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  5. ^ Browser wars: High price, huge rewards
  6. ^ Håkon Wium Lie; Bert Bos. "Chapter 20 – The CSS saga". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  7. ^ "Internet Explorer HTML Specification". Citycat.ru. Retrieved 28 December 2012.