Which browser was originally called 'Phoenix'?

The browser originally called “Phoenix” was Firefox. Mozilla released Phoenix 0.1 on September 23, 2002, as an experimental, lightweight branch of the Mozilla browser project.

The name referred to a mythical phoenix rising from ashes—an allusion to the browser emerging from Netscape Navigator’s decline during the first browser war. However, Phoenix Technologies objected to the name on trademark grounds. Mozilla then renamed the project Firebird in 2003, but that name also created conflict with the Firebird database project.

On February 9, 2004, the browser became Mozilla Firefox. “Firefox” is a common nickname for the red panda, although the familiar logo depicts a stylized fox wrapping around a globe. The name changes can cause confusion: Phoenix and Firebird were earlier names for the same browser project, not separate mainstream browsers competing with Firefox.

Firefox later became a major alternative to Internet Explorer, helped by features such as tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, and extensions.