NetCaptor began as SimulBrowse and became known for a tabbed interface resembling modern browser tabs.
Development started in 1997 under the name SimulBrowse. Its developer, Adam Stiles, later renamed it NetCaptor because he disliked the original name. NetCaptor was not an independent rendering engine like modern browsers; it was an Internet Explorer shell that used Internet Explorer’s Trident engine while adding its own interface and features.
Its importance lies in how it organized multiple pages inside one browser window. The program offered tab-based browsing, along with tools such as QuickSearch, aliases, pop-up blocking, and groups of saved pages. The tabs were widely described as unusually close in form and function to the tabs used by modern browsers.
NetCaptor was discontinued after version 7.5.4, released on February 18, 2005. The developer formally declared the project dead in January 2008. Other early browsers, including Opera and BookLink’s InternetWorks, had related multi-page interfaces, so claims about the absolute first browser tab can be debated; NetCaptor remains the canonical answer to this SimulBrowse clue.