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com> Date: Sat, 4 Oct 97 3:20:05 EDT OK, now, bear in mind that I'm not a primary source here; But: Last night (9/30-10/1) at midnight, Mr Bill's Browser 40 was released. Late last night, between midnight and 1:30, somebody (MS? probably) dumped a huge IE logo on Netscape's front lawn (a metal shell, apparently, deep enough to stand up on its own). They probably expected that we wouldn't notice until morning, and wouldn't be able to get equipment to move it until 11:00 or so, and some press cameras would come by in the meantime; we wouldn't be able to bring legal action, 'cause we wouldn't have any proof, and we'd just look whiny. Needless to say, MS was dumb: they forgot that we're *here* at midnight! Somebody spotted it, and, rather than waste effort trying to get rid of the logo, they decided to slap MS in the face with it instead. and then carried over our 7-foot-tall statue of Mozilla (Netscape's Godzillaoid mascot) and stood it up on top of the IE logo. So now we have Mozilla standing on top of the defeated IE (with his thumb up and a grin on his face), and people are wandering by and taking pictures; it got covered in by local papers and TV, and I've been told Reuters picked it up.
From Reuters: Microsoft Plays Prank on Netscape after Bash 06:49 am Oct 02, 1997 Eastern MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. They had to top off the night with a prank on Internet software rival Netscape Communications Corp. Netscape employees found a gigantic blue stage prop in the shape of an "e" in front of their company's front door Wednesday morning. The night before, the same 10-by-12-foot stage prop -- which represents the logo for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, or IE, browser -- was spotted at a Microsoft bash in San Francisco. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and about 1,000 industry executives were celebrating the launch of the newest version of Internet Explorer. A card attached to the prop read, "From the IE team," she said. "It seems awfully immature to resort to fraternity tactics to draw attention," Holten said. It's something you'd expect from a startup, not the largest software company in the world."
Netscape and Microsoft have been battling to dominate the market for Internet browsers for the past two years. By most industry estimates, Netscape has about three-quarters of the market with its Navigator browser, but Microsoft is rapidly gaining with each new release of Internet Explorer. Company employees put their 12-foot mascot -- a green Godzilla-like foam creature dubbed "Mozilla" -- on top of the "e". Mozilla held a placard that read, "Netscape 72, Microsoft 18," referring to recent market share data.
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