Internet Explorer 3

Internet Explorer 3

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 (IE3) was a graphical web browser 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. 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. In September 1997 it was superseded by Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.

IE3 was the first commercial browser with Cascading Style Sheets support. It also introduced support for ActiveX controls, Java applets, inline multimedia, and the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) system for content metadata. This version was also the first version of Internet Explorer to use the blue 'e' logo, which later became a symbol of the browser. Version 3 also came bundled with Internet Mail and News, NetMeeting, and an early version of the Windows Address Book, and was itself included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. There were 16-bit and 32-bit versions depending on the OS.

IE3 was the first version 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. "

Internet Explorer 3 is no longer available for download from Microsoft. However, archive 16- and 32-bit versions are publicly available from Evolt.org. These include Internet Explorer 3.03 (16-bit for Windows 3.1), Internet Explorer 3.03 (16-bit for Windows NT 3.51), Internet Explorer 3.0 (32-bit), Internet Explorer 3.02 for Windows 95 (32-bit), and Internet Explorer 3.02 for Windows NT 4.0 (32-bit).