What was the name of the first web browser?

The first web browser was WorldWideWeb, created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1990. It was more than a browser: it was also a web-page editor, allowing its users to create and link documents as well as read them.

Berners-Lee wrote the program on a NeXT computer while developing the early World Wide Web. The first version was completed before 25 December 1990, and the browser was introduced to colleagues at CERN in March 1991. It became available to the wider public in August 1991.

The software initially ran only on NeXTSTEP, limiting its audience. To make the Web accessible on more systems, Nicola Pellow developed the Line Mode Browser, a simpler cross-platform client that could run on text terminals. Other early browsers followed, including ViolaWWW, Erwise, and MidasWWW.

WorldWideWeb was later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion between the application and the Web itself. It should not be confused with Mosaic, which became popular in 1993 because it displayed images inline with text and helped bring the Web to a mass audience. Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator arrived later, during the browser wars of the 1990s.