In Pictures: B is for browser - a homage to 12 Web greats

L is for Lynx, so fast and graphics-free, It looked just like a DOS screen, or so it seemed to me

Of course, Web browsers were only useful if people actually had access to the Internet, and back in 1992, that wasn't a whole lot of people. To get onto the Internet from your den or dorm room, you would dial into a college or corporate network. But how were you supposed to browse Web sites from a terminal?

A team at the University of Kansas developed the text-only browser Lynx, at first to browse the college network, then Usenet, then the world. At 21 this year, the cross-platform Lynx (shown here on Windows in the mid-'90s) is the longest-lived Web browser that's still developed and supported. But with its looks, it's not going to get invited to the prom anytime soon.