The internet is an ever-evolving landscape, and throughout the years we’ve seen a lot of web browsers come and go. Sure, we’re all familiar with Internet Explorer, Edge, Firefox, and Chrome, but there are a ton of lesser-known projects, too. Many of them have disappeared over the years, and some still live on, but are mostly forgotten by just about everyone.
Everyone loves reminiscing, so let’s take a look at some of the most interesting browsers that you probably forgot about or didn’t even know in the first place.
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Maxthon Browser
Things were different in the 2000s
Back in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, it felt like we were willing to experiment a bit more and try new pieces of software, so I’m sure more than a few people have come across Maxthon Browser at one point or another. Launched in 2002, Maxthon didn’t necessarily do anything too different, but it was an alternative browser at a time when people were hopping around different browsers a bit more.
These days, most of us are fairly set on using our preferred browser most of the time, but Maxthon is actually still alive and kicking. The current version is based on Chromium, but it has some cool features like split view and the ability to share files between devices. That being said, there probably isn’t much reason to switch from your main browser to this anytime soon.
Lynx
A text-only browser that somehow lives on
Once upon a time, web browsers could only load and display text. And with Lynx, that time can be now, because this is yet another browser that’s still going. The reason you probably don’t know about Lynx is that it’s an entirely text-based browser, meaning if you want to view any modern page… well, you can view the text.
Why you would want to use a text-only browser is admittedly beyond me, and that probably helps explain why Lynx isn’t the most well-known browser. But it’s not dead just yet, and as a novelty, it’s interesting to say the least.
Rockmelt
This one is here entirely for selfish reasons, and I briefly mentioned it before when talking about apps you’ve probably forgotten about. Rockmelt was a browser in the early 2010s that was built on the Chromium engine, but with a big focus on social features. Specifically, Rockmelt had Facebook built right in, and at the time, that was the coolest thing ever for me. I could browse the web and have m, chats quickly accessible without having to switch tabs at all. It even had a list of my online friends and everything, so the messaging experience was seamless, plus the Facebook notifications button was there too.
At the time, Facebook was pretty much the only social platform I was on, and back then, it was also easier to have apps that could operate with this data instead of using official apps. These days, any messaging client that’s not official will usually just load the web version of the respective service, and it’s lame. Rockmelt was really only possible during its time, but now that platforms like Beeper exist, it would be awesome to see this idea come back in some way.
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Opera Mini for iPhone
Standing up to Apple in the best of ways
Apple has always been very restrictive with its ecosystem, but back in 2010, it was much worse than it was today. Apps on the iPhone weren’t allowed to run third-party code, which meant that browsers other than Apple’s own Safari basically couldn’t exist. And yet, we got Opera Mini.
Opera Mini was an ingenious browser solution for iPhone users. Instead of rendering the webpages on your phone, Opera Mini would render them in the cloud, and stream the resulting page back to your phone. It sounds clunky, but because iPhones were still pretty slow at the time, this actually made browsing the web much faster than using a regular browser, and it cut back on data usage, too. Most importantly, it was such a clever way to circumvent Apple’s restrictions, and Opera even created a countdown timer until Apple approved the app on the App Store.
Opera Mini lives on for Android users, but these days, it doesn’t make much sense as phones are much faster and most people have access to high-speed internet. At the time, on the iPhone, though, it was a crazy idea at the right time.
AOL Explorer
Yes, AOL made a version of Internet Explorer
Here’s a bit of trivia you might not have known about. Back in 2004, AOL got the rights to Internet Explorer for a seven-year contract, as a result of AOL’s Netscape Communications business suing Microsoft for anti-competitive practices. AOL took that opportunity to launch AOL Explorer, its own browser that mostly based on Internet Explorer, including the ability to access Windows Updates and use IE plug-ins.
AOL Explorer was only around for about a year before it was replaced by the AOL Desktop suite, which also includes a web browser, along with email client and a (now-defunct) messaging client. This actually still exists behind a paywall, but I suspect next to no one is using it.
Nintendo DS Browser
I’m sorry, what?
In the mid-2000s to early 2010s, console manufacturers were trying to capitalize on the mass adoption of the internet with all kinds of media features, and many of them included a web browser along with other apps. Nintendo was in on this, too, with the Wii and Nintendo DSi systems both featuring a browser, but what if you had the original DS or DS Lite models?
Well, Nintendo had the right solution for you, as long as you were willing to pay $20 for a web browser in the mid-2000s. Released on a standard game cartridge, the Nintendo DS Browser was a port of Opera 8.5, but even then, the software was just too powerful to run on the DS normally. Nintendo’s solution was to sell the DS game card along with a Game Boy Advance cartridge that would be inserted into the Nintendo DS’s Slot -2 to add extra RAM to the system, making it possible to actually run the browser, though reviewers at the time still noted the terrible overall performance. But hey, who doesn’t want to pay $20 for a terrible web browsing experience in 2007?
Thankfully, with the release of the Nintendo DSi, the browser was built into the console and the hardware actually had enough RAM to run it this time.
Safari for Windows
Apple plays nice with Windows
Today, Safari is exclusively known as the browser on Apple devices, but for a brief stint between 2007 and 2012, Apple’s browser actually made its way to Windows. I remember using this one back in the day when I liked jumping around between different browsers, and it was definitely interesting. While I can’t find proof that this was ever possible, I clearly remember seeing the Mac-style minimize, restore, and close buttons, which felt really weird on a Windows PC.
Safari was simply a normal browser, and it still runs on Windows today if you can find an installer. But because of how old it is, you won’t get much use out of it. The web has evolved a lot in recent years, and a lot of websites just won’t load.
Internet Explorer for Mac
It goes both ways
Finally, we can go even further back to the late 1990s and early 2000s for another relic — Internet Explorer on the Mac. I mean, sure, today we have Microsoft Edge available on almost anything, but before that, you probably never heard of a Microsoft browser on Mac. It happened in 1996, though, and all the way until 2003. Internet Explorer was becoming the most popular browser int he world, and Microsoft wanted to ensure that would happen.
A licensing agreement even made Internet Explorer the default browser in Mac OS and Mac OS X until Apple introduced its own Safari browser in 2003.
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What will be next?
These are just a selection of the myriad of browsers that have been discontinued over the years. Of course, even Internet Explorer for Windows has been killed off today, but that’s still too recent to make this list. And we’re likely to see many more fall into oblivion over the next few years, it’s just a matter of which one will be next. But even when that happens, at least we have the memories of using those browsers to look back on fondly. I’ll always miss Rockmelt.