A Window on the Global Mind:
An Exploration of the World Wide Web Browser

By Anthony Hempell
anthony AT anthonyhempell.com

April 25, 2003

Introduction

Definition

Conceptually, a browser acts as an interface or a type of operating system to the WWW. Just as a operating system controls the various interactions in a computer system, the browser manages the interaction between the user, computer, and data on several levels. The "magic" of the browser is to orchestrate all these elements into a seamless experience for the user. This coordination happens in two main areas: the network and the interface.

The network aspect of the browser is the work it conducts 'behind the scenes', as a translator and communications tool, setting up connections between clients and servers and translating code for display. One model for conceptualizing the browser's role is as the top "layer" of the communications system that enables the WWW's operation (Lyon, 2001), although the browser's network aspect must communicate down the chain to the Presentation and Session layers.

The interface aspect is the combination of the application layer and presentation layer. The GUI browser separates the user and information while at the same time shaping the content displayed through its window (Johnson, 1997). Laurel (1986) says that an interface is the form, translating data into a visual display; while Manovitch (2001) states that the interface is a code carrying cultural messages. An interface is therefore a translator of code, and a code is rarely neutral: it usually affects to some degree what kind of messages can and cannot be sent (Manovitch, 2001). It may also shape a model or ideology of the world, which filters or modifies the meaning or significance of the content being sent (Manovitch, 2001). In addition, the browser's state as a GUI application affords it some of the attributes common to all GUI applications; for example: cut and paste, meaning content can be edited/extracted/copied by the user, as well as manipulated and/or modified (Manovitch, 2001).

A fuller understanding of the browser requires some knowledge of how it fits into the overall client-server architecture of the WWW. Servers are computers, which hold all of the data available on the web, and manage and distribute this information by communicating with clients (a web browser is a client). Clients and servers speak to each other using HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (1) commands, and in general, the server passes documents written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) (4) to the client (browser). So, to be very specific, a browser is a software application that is capable of communicating with a web client using HTTP, and is capable of displaying content written in HTML. Most browsers have many more capabilities, but the ability to work with HTTP and HTML would have to be the core "essential" capabilities of any browser. So, a good working definition would be:

Web Browser: a software application that translates Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and other digital media into the web "pages" we see on the World Wide Web (WWW).

Development of the Browser

The Browser: a socially-constructed artifact.

According to Pinch & Bijker, any technology will move through stages of innovation into either acceptance or disuse. The first phase is called interpretive flexibility: different interpretations and ideas/conclusions can be drawn from the same problem. As we will see in the development of the WWW and the browser, a number of different groups contributed in shaping its technical parameters and social role.

The next stage is called closure and stabilization, of which there are two types: rhetorical closure and closure by redefinition of the problem. Rhetorical closure "involves the stabilization of an artifact and the 'disappearance' of problems" (Pinch and Bijker, 1987 p.44), or redefining an artifact as a thing in its own right, instead of a problem-solving tool. "Closure by redefinition of the problem" sounds slightly Orwellian, but it often simply involves the change in the definition of which problem is important, often by the social groups using the technology (Pinch and Bijker, 1987).

The following section will look at the historical development of the WWW Browser, using Pinch & Bijker's SCOT model as a framework for analysis.

Beginnings

Bush represented a distinct social group, who would continue to have a large impact on the WWW's development: scientists and academics. This group generally was interested in sharing information and collaborating with each other to work on the scientific and technological projects. The memex itself was never developed, yet this idea proved to be an inspiration for many further thinkers and invetors including Doug Englebart (GUI), Ted Nelson (hypertext) and Tim Berners-Lee (WWW).

Another major input into the web's development was the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1958. ARPA was set up in the United States under the Eisenhower administration in response to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite (Naughton, 1999) and was essentially an academic incubator for advanced technology projects in electronics and communications (Castells, 2001). The ARPANET, a communications network created to withstand a nuclear attack, evolved into the Internet, and is now considered to be one of the most important technical achievements in the late 20th century (Cringely, Segaller & Gau, 1998).

ARPA represented another major social group: government and the military. This group was interested in fostering technological innovation for use in military, aeronautics and space exploration, in order to gain a competitive advantage over the Soviet Union during the Cold War. ARPA's legacy was both the technological innovations of packet-switching (2) and TCP/IP (3), and the social, cultural and intellectual environment of the early Internet, which formed a fertile environment in which the WWW and the first browsers could be developed.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) took up Englebart's ideas in the 1970's, experimenting with building systems to create a paperless office (Johnson, 1997). Xerox's system was called "Smalltalk", and it seemed destined to stay as a laboratory side-project until Steve Jobs from Apple Computer viewed a demonstration (Johnson, 1997). Jobs was looking for a competitive advantage and a way to open up new markets for computers. He recognized Smalltalk's potential and used it as the basis for the Lisa and Macintosh operating systems (Johnson, 1997).

The GUI was a thought experiment that required an entrepreneur to seize it and realize its potential for a mass audience. A similar turn of events would characterize the creation of the web browser less than ten years later.

Creation of Hypertext

Artists and writers like Ted Nelson originally conceived Hypertext as a means for archiving and creating new methods of access to literary and other written works. Its first working application was a technical writing project developed at Brown University in 1967. The system was funded by IBM and was eventually sold to the Houston Manned Spacecraft Centre, and was used to produce documentation for the Apollo program (Naughton, 1999). This application of hypertext is still used today in most on-line "help" systems for software.

Apple Computer later used hypertext as a basis for its HyperCard software, designed for the educational community. HyperCard was also the first system to integrate text links with images and sound for a multimedia experience. Naughton states that HyperCard was -- and is -- a wonderful piece of software which gives people who know nothing about programming the 'freedom to associate' -- to organize information in ways which match or suit their own cognitive styles." (Naughton, 1999, p. 227).

These early applications of hypertext formed an environment where the medium's strengths and limitations could be tested by interested practitioners. Still, hypertext remained a fairly specialized area until it was adopted by a scientist, who was attempting to grapple with the same problems that Vannevar Bush had envisioned forty-five years earlier.

Other precursors of note

The Web is born

The creation of the browser was only one part of the picture however; creating the WWW involved a team of several researchers at CERN to create HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), HTML , URLs (5), and web server software. Also worthy of note is that Berners-Lee outlined a number of philosophical and technical guidelines for the Web, which served as guiding principles for later browser software to follow. These guidelines stated that the Web should:

• Allow remote access across networks;
• Be heterogeneous (allow access from different computer systems);
• Be non-centralized;
• Allow access to existing data;
• Enable users to add their own links to and from other documents;
• Favour generality and portability over graphics and/or complexity;
• Have a client-server model architecture;
• Allow documents to be editable by their readers (Naughton, 1999).

Early browsers

Also in 1992, Pei Wei, a student at U.C. Berkeley, wrote ViolaWWW, an advanced graphical browser that "set an early standard...[having] many of the attributes that would come out several years later in the much-hyped program HotJava" (Berners-Lee, 1999, p.56). ViolaWWW had some major drawbacks: it was complicated to install and only worked on UNIX machines; however it was influential in expanding the audience for the web further into the UNIX and programming communities (Berners-Lee & Fischetti, 1999).

Robert Cailliau at CERN then started to write a browser for the Macintosh. The program was eventually finished by Nicola Pellow in the summer of 1992 and was called Samba. Additional important browser creations during this time were Midas for X-Windows, Arena, and the text browser Lynx developed at the University of Kansas (Berners-Lee & Fischetti, 1999).

At this point, the WWW and the browser was still in what Pinch & Bijker would call the "interpretive flexibility" stage. Berners-Lee and his associates had created a working model of a hypertext information sharing system, and its distribution on the Internet sped up the process of evaluation and mutation. All of these tools and applications served as building blocks and discussion points for the fledgling web community, and provided input into the creation of future browsers.

NCSA and Mosaic

Mosaic provided a very different experience than the use of previous browsers, most importantly because it allowed images to be shown on the same page as text. This was somewhat controversial at the time, as Berners-Lee's vision revolved around having hypertext as the medium of choice. Mosaic allowed for images to be included within the text, and even as links. This led to some heated debate between Berners-Lee and Andreessen (Naughton, 1999), as Berners-Lee had a more "purist" agenda of the web as a information storage and retrieval tool, and Andreessen's vision was unabashedly populist. Regardless, it was a turning point, as Andreessen and Bina had realized the vision of graphical user interface for what had been previously been an almost universally text-based medium (Gilder, 1995).

The creation of Mosaic was the first stage of the "closure and stabilization" phase for the WWW browser. Mosaic's form as a GUI window with the familiar navigation controls, bookmarks and ability to display text and graphics are still the basis for what we now expect any web browser to do. From here, browser development took a different turn towards attempting to "cash in" on and even "control" the user experience on the WWW.

Netscape

The new company originally called itself Mosaic Communications Corporation, but changed their name to Netscape Communications Corp after they were threatened with legal action by NCSA (Gillies & Cailliau, 2000). Their first project was to create their flagship product, Netscape Navigator. The Navigator browser was completely re-written from the ground up, in part to avoid any lawsuits from NCSA (Naughton, 1999). The new browser was faster, and had security measures to support financial transactions (Abbate, 1999). Navigator eclipsed Mosaic as the preferred browser for the WWW almost immediately, and by April 1995, HTTP had become the most frequently used protocol for transferring data on the Internet (Gillies & Cailliau, 2000). In August 1995, Netscape Communications went public, almost tripling its initial stock price on the first day of trading (Gillies & Cailliau, 2000).

Netscape Navigator signalled another step in the "closure and stabilization" phase. The basic feature set and functionality of the browser had almost completely stabilized (rhetorical closure), and the design team moved onto different challenges (redefinition of the problem): secure transactions (for commerce) and creating/implementing new interface possibilities in HTML (tables, frames, etc.).

A Brief History of the Browser Wars

In December of 1995, Bill Gates stated in a press conference that Microsoft would "embrace and extend" the Internet. This is widely regarded as the first shot in the "browser war" between Microsoft and Netscape in which Microsoft determined that it wanted to wrestle browser market share away from Netscape (Berners-Lee & Fischetti, 1999). The whole idea behind the "browser war" was that by controlling the browser, a company could possibly control or at least influence content, by offering additional "services" and filtering mechanisms through the browser interface.

However, Microsoft found itself in trouble on another front with IE, as competitors such as Netscape and Sun accused Microsoft of using its economic clout in order to eliminate competition (New Standard, 1999). This led to a long investigation by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) into alleged anti-competitive practices by Microsoft. The DOJ eventually ruled against Microsoft, but this has only served to limit the extent to which Microsoft incorporates the browser into its operating system (BBC, 2002).

The story of Explorer demonstrates that the browser is an artifact that continues to evolve. In the hands of a market-share battle, one group (Microsoft) has tried to almost re-integrate the browser in the computer interface itself -- a remarkable example of a technology swallowing its own progeny. However, this is also an indication that the GUI and the web browser have at their core a very similar purpose: to facilitate Englebart's original goal of a visual means for navigating through information.

Window on the Brain: Hybrid Translator

I've learned to recognize those moments when a technological breakthrough sucks us all into a new dimension. Mosaic...had that instantly recognizable look of the future to it. (Rheingold, 1993, p.309)

It is interesting to "switch gears" for a moment, and bring in McLuhan & Powers' observations regarding the relationships between visual and acoustic space -- specifically that they represent the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. McLuhan borrows the concept of 'figure' and 'ground' from gestalt psychology to illustrate the concept of how our sense perception can alter our consciousness of the world around us (McLuhan, 1994; McLuhan & Powers, 1989). McLuhan uses 'figure' and 'ground' to discuss the various effects (the 'satisfactions' and 'dissatisfactions') of technology, by looking beyond the surface into how technology brings different social elements into focus, and allows others to recede in importance (McLuhan & Powers, 1989). According to McLuhan, Western history has been dominated by the perception of the world as a linear thought: everything has a beginning, middle, and an end. The result is a world-view dominated by linear logic and the symbolic abstraction of meaning. (6)

The browser can be seen as moderating/translating between the two 'spaces' McLuhan refers to: the visual space (linear, alphabet, text) and the acoustic (the global database of consciousness). In the middle is the browser software, using hypertext, a bridge between the two worlds. The user's consciousness is in two places at once, simultaneously: at the computer (interface), and within the data itself (McLuhan & Powers, 1989).

Looking further into this bridging of the two modes are some interesting parallels with hypertext and other media. When speaking of the Web, Johnson (1997) says that the pull into cyberspace was not fancy graphics or animations, but clicking on our first hypertext link and being jettisoned across the planet. The freedom and immediacy of the movement -- shuttling from site to site across the infosphere, following trails of though wherever they led us -- was genuinely unlike anything before it (Johnson, 1997, p. 110).

Despite this great potential, Johnson argues that the use of hypertext has devolved into nothing more than linking to the obvious -- the corporate logo, the 'additional information' link. For an alternate view of how they could be used, Johnson cites the now-defunct webzine Suck as an example of how hyperlinks can be used to create layers of meaning and innuendo. Here, the cognitive and contextual space between the link and the destination created something new -- part grammar, part literary device. The web is ripe with examples of non-standard media forms using hypertext or links to artistic ends (www.e13.com, www.word.com). Similar examples can be cited in the development and use of montage in film (Manovitch, 2001) and frame panels in comics (McCloud, 1993).

Johnson compares the structure of the hypertext Web to the connective model of the brain, calling Vannevar Bush's (1945) model of hypertext as "an intricate assemblage of neurons connected by trails of electrical energy, generating information out of connections rather than fixed identity" (Johnson, 1997, p. 119). In contrast to this holistic view, in the browser interface "the user's screen [is] ruled by straight lines and rectangular windows" (Manovitch, 2001, p.63) with the data representation of human consciousness being filtered (once again) through a small rectangle with its fixed array of lines and boxes (Manovitch, 2001). Within the structure of the browser window itself, we have an example of the visual (eye) dominating over the acoustic space (the global database).

Johnson claims that the hypertext link is the "first significant new form of punctuation to emerge in centuries...suggest[ing] a whole new grammar of possibilities, a new way of writing and telling stories" (Johnson, 1997, p. 110-111). Instead, it has ended up only transforming how we present those stories, and possibly how we structure our sentences and paragraphs (shorter, neater, scan-able). We haven't moved beyond the page format yet: each document within a browser is still conceptually similar to a newspaper or magazine (Manovitch, 2001): our thought patterns are still shaped by the printing press.

The browser is therefore translating the world of a global, interconnected data environment into a form or medium we can work with given our limited conceptualization of how information should be stored and presented: in lines and boxes; pictures and words. Perhaps we haven't come as far as we'd like to think -- and are still rooted in what McLuhan would say is the new media using the previous media (databases, newspapers) as content.

The Global Brain

In an extreme view, the world can be seen as only connections, nothing else. We think of a dictionary as the repository of meaning, but it defines words only in terms of other words... there really is little else to meaning. The structure is everything. There are billions of neurons in our brains, but what are neurons? Just cells. The brain has no knowledge until connections are made between neurons. All that we know, all that we are, comes from the way our neurons are connected (Berners-Lee & Fischetti, 1999, p. 12)

Mayer-Kress & Barczys (1995) also look at the concept of a "Global Brain" as a result of interconnections between computers and humans, and hypothesize that these relationships may lead to higher levels of information processing:

A highly interconnected set of 'units' or 'nodes' can give rise to emergent structures and behaviours that the individual units alone do not exhibit -- that is, the behaviour of the whole can be different from the sum of its parts (Mayer-Kress & Barczys, 1995, pp.1-2)

The web's ability to link is analogous to "associative memory", the way in which our brains make associations between different thoughts and ideas (Heylighen & Bollen, 1996). At present, the web is dependent on humans to add new information to it, who add documents or links to newly discovered material, using their own judgement about what is worthwhile or which documents should be linked to which other documents" ideas. (Heylighen & Bollen, 1996, http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/WWWSuperBRAIN.html)

Possibly, we may have to let the web "discover" the best possible organization, through associative learning. Actual thinking will require further associative learning or semantic structuring to create a larger array of strong to weak links between information ideas (Heylighen & Bollen, 1996).

Consequences

Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of man -- the technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society (McLuhan, 1994, pp. 3-4)

Part of our problem with understanding how to use the browser is that its power may lie in the links between information -- as in the space between the frames, the montage, or even the synapses of the brain. However we may still be too connected to the linear, sequential model to understand how to use it these attributes effectively -- or even simply rebel against it, if it causes too much dissonance with our current worldview. In any event, the power of the "world brain" is within our grasp -- the question is, will we be able to develop the tools to see something truly revolutionary in it, or will it continue to exist as nothing more than a larger, faster, more all-encompassing database.

End Notes

1. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the common standard that allows any browser to connect to any server on the WWW (Spainhour & Quercia, 1996). It is the "language" that all web browsers and web servers use to speak to each other, and operates "on top of" TCP/IP to send data back and forth (Gaudet, 1997). HTTP was designed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN to support his vision of an open system that could support links to multiple types of content. (Berners Lee and Fischetti, 1999).

2. Packet switching is the technology that makes the Internet such a flexible medium on which to transmit data. Packet switching works by dividing each communication into individual, digital packets, and then using protocols to get the packets from one place to another (National Computer Board, 2000a). Each packet is transmitted individually and can follow any path on the network available. Once all the packets arrive at their destination, they are reassembled into the original message (National Computer Board, 2000a).

3. TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, a group of communications protocols used for connecting computers to the Internet. TCP/IP is essentially the rules and regulations (grammar) for managing packet-switching communications. TCP/IP is now the most reliable and widely deployed network protocol in the world. The IPV4 version of TCP/IP that was developed in the 1970's is still the standard in use today (Stewart, 2002).

4. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is used to encode WWW documents. It is used to specify document layout, hypertext links and the placement of embedded media objects within the document (Spainhour & Quercia, 1996). HTML was based upon Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a preferred language in documentation circles (Berners-Lee and Fischetti, 1999). The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops HTML standards and versions. (Spainhour & Quercia, 1996). However both Netscape and Microsoft have introduced their own HTML tags that have been only compatible with their own browsers when released; other browsers have subsequently adopted some of these HTML 'extensions' as they became popular with developers.

5. The original specification for the internet addressing scheme was called a URI, or "Universal Resource Identifier" (Berners-Lee and Fischetti, 1999), however this nomenclature was not favoured by the team that finalized the web standards, and the final acronym was URL, for "Uniform Resource Locator". It is the logical address of a web page. (Stewart, 2002). The URL of the current web page is usually shown at the top of a web browser, and should look something like "http://www.mcluhan.ca/". (Stewart, 2002).

6. McLuhan and Powers state that technologies of the alphabet and writing strongly have strongly biased our communication media towards the world of visual space. Our discourse about our environment is constricted into ideas of lines, planes and grids. The universe is perceived as having a beginning, and at some point an end; time is constructed as a line. These models are abstractions based on our perceptive tools, which are built to heighten our awareness of visual space. In contrast with the linear biases of visual space, acoustic space is analogous to the natural environment. Acoustic space surrounds us; it approaches from 360 degrees. It is a simultaneous process of "centers everywhere and boundaries nowhere." (McLuhan & Powers, 1989, p. 8)

BBC (2002) Microsoft court case: What's it all about? Retrieved February 20, 2003 from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/652150.stm

Berners-Lee, T. and Fischetti, M. (1999) Weaving the web: The original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor. San Francisco: HarperCollins.

Bush, V. (1945). As We May Think. Atlantic Monthly, 176 (1), 101-108.

Cailliau, R. (1995) A little history of the World Wide Web. Retrieved February 19, 2003 from: http://www.w3.org/History.html

Castells, M. (2001) The internet galaxy: Reflections on the internet, business and society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cringely, R. X. (Writer and Narrator), Segaller, S. (Writer, Producer and Director) and Gau, J. (Writer) (1999) Nerds 2.0.1: A brief history of the internet [Video recording]. Oregon: Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Gaudet, D. (1997) HTTP Transactions and You. Retrieved March 18, 2003 from: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/geektalk/97/06/index4a.html?tw=backend

Gilder, G. "The Coming Software Shift," Forbes, 28 August 1995.

Gilles, J. and Cailliau, R. (2000) How the web was born: The story of the World Wide Web. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heylighen, F. and Bollen, J. (1996) The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain: from metaphor to model. Accessed on April 17, 2003 from: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/WWWSuperBRAIN.html

Johnson, S. (1997) Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. San Francisco: HarperEdge.

Laurel, B. K. (1986). Interface as Mimesis. In Norman, D. A. & Draper, S. W. (eds.) User Centered System Design (pp. 67-85). Hillsdale NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lyon, D. (2001) Java For Programmers. Retrieved March 18, 2003 from: http://show.docjava.com:8086/book/cgij/backup/ch29.pdf

Manovitch, L. (2001) The Language of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Mayer-Kress, G. and Barczys, C. (1995) The Global Brain as an Emergent Structure from the Worldwide Computing Network, and Its Implications for Modeling. The Information Society 11 (1).

McCloud, S. (1993) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Paradox Press.

McLuhan, M. (1994) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

McLuhan, M. and McLuhan, E. (1988) Laws of Media: The New Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

McLuhan, M. and Powers, B.R. (1989) The Global Village: Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

National Computer Board (2000a). Packet Switching. Retrieved March 6, 2003 from: http://afrinet.intnet.mu/competition/competition/team02/howitworks/switching.htm

National Computer Board (2000b). TCP/IP. Retrieved March 6, 2003 from: http://afrinet.intnet.mu/competition/competition/team02/howitworks/tcpip.htm

Naughton, J. (1999) A brief history of the future: The origins of the internet. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

New Standard (1999) Timeline of important dates in Microsoft case. Retrieved February 19, 2003 from: http://www.s-t.com/daily/11-99/11-06-99/b08bu092.htm

Pinch, T. and Bijker, W.E. (1987) The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts. In Bijker, W.E., Hughes, T.P. & Pinch, T.J. (eds.) The Social Construction of Technological Systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Randall, N. (1997) The soul of the internet: Net gods, netizens and the wiring of the world. London: International Thompson Computer Press.

Rhiengold, H. (1993) The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. New York: HarperPerennial.

Russell, P. (1995) Global Brain. Retrived on April 21, 2003 from: http://www.peterussell.com/GB/Chap8.html

Spainhour, S. and Quercia, V. (1996). Webmaster in a nutshell: A desktop quick reference. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly and Associates.

Stevens, M. (1997) The Lowdown on IPV6. Retrieved March 16, 2003 from: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/97/19/index4a.html?tw=backend

Stewart, W. (2002) Internet history, design, advanced usage, security issues, and more. Retrieved March 6, 2003 from: http://livinginternet.com

Wells, H. G.(1938), World Brain. London: Methuen.

Wilson, B. (2001) Browser history: Internet Explorer. Retrieved February 19, 2003 from: http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/ie.htm