Speeding the Net

There have been many books written about the Netscape phenomenon in recent times, most of which boast more insight or inside information than the last. This braggadocio rarely translates to true revelation, but with Speeding the Net - The Inside Story of Netscape and how it Challenged Microsoft, I expected a bit more. The authors' earlier work, Masters of Deception: The Gang that Ruled Cyberspace, was engaging, detailed and well written. Unfortunately, this story of the rise of Netscape and its Navigator browser isn't.

A cast of characters is assembled: Marc Andreessen the gifted programmer, James Clark the visionary businessman, James Barksdale the single-minded entrepreneur whose drive made Netscape profitable and, of course, Bill Gates and the mighty Microsoft. The story is engaging enough, but it lacks flair and excitement, containing little analysis of the chain of events that shaped these individuals' actions. Navigator was revolutionary, but the authors have failed to infuse their book with any sort of passion.

The book looks closely at the early days of Navigator's development, concentrating on Andreessen himself as he moved through college, where inspiration struck and the Mosaic browser was born. Andreessen could see that the Internet wasn't simply an academic tool, but something that would change the world.

The second half of the book chronicles the company's move to independence, and its rush to complete its flagship product in record time. Netscape (then still known as Mosaic) took the world by storm. Instead of concentrating on these events, however, the book moves swiftly on to the browser wars and looks in detail at Netscape's plans to compete with Microsoft.

Although this information is interesting, the emphasis of the book is inevitably diluted. The David and Goliath analogy may be appropriate, but it confuses the second half of the book. I'd have preferred more information, for example, on how Netscape capitalised on the window of opportunity provided by Microsoft's legal problems, than a discussion of what Microsoft was doing to counter Netscape's attack.

Netscape's story is one that, in the wired world's brief history, has reached almost mythical proportions. Ultimately, however, Speeding the Net fails to capture the essence of the company, the personalities that shaped it and the contribution they made to what we now know as the Internet.

Author: Dave Howell