Which company created JavaScript?

Netscape created JavaScript, with programmer Brendan Eich developing the language for the Netscape Navigator web browser in 1995. The company wanted to make web pages more interactive, since early websites were largely static after loading.

Eich joined Netscape in April 1995 and initially expected to work on a browser version of Scheme. Netscape management instead wanted a language that could be used by a broad audience and whose syntax looked familiar to Java programmers. Eich combined ideas associated with Scheme and Self with a Java-like syntax.

The language was first called Mocha, then LiveScript when it appeared in a Navigator beta. Netscape and Sun Microsystems officially announced the JavaScript name in December 1995. Despite the name, JavaScript and Java are separate programming languages with different designs and histories.

Netscape’s role is sometimes confused with Sun Microsystems, which helped promote the JavaScript name and later held the trademark. Sun did not create the language; the original implementation and language design came from Eich at Netscape.