Microsoft's Epic Netscape Lawn Prank of 1997

The browser wars of the 1990s were vicious. Microsoft and Netscape weren't just competing for market share—they were fighting for the future of the internet itself. But on October 1, 1997, the rivalry took a surprisingly playful turn.

As Microsoft prepared to launch Internet Explorer 4.0, a team of employees hatched a plan. In the dead of night, they loaded a 10-foot-tall sculptured "e" logo onto a flatbed truck and drove it to Netscape's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The Morning After

Netscape employees arrived at work to find the massive IE logo planted on their front lawn, complete with a banner reading "From the IE team... We Love You."

The message was clear: Microsoft had arrived, and they weren't leaving.

But Netscape wasn't about to take this lying down. Within hours, their own employees had responded in the most Silicon Valley way possible—they knocked the IE logo over and placed their Mozilla dinosaur mascot on top of it, triumphantly standing on the fallen enemy.

Why This Moment Mattered

This wasn't just corporate pranking. The IE 4.0 launch represented a turning point in the browser wars:

• Microsoft had invested $100 million per year in browser development
• IE 4.0 was bundled free with Windows, crushing Netscape's paid model
• Netscape's market share would plummet from 72% to under 1% within five years

The lawn prank became a symbol of the entire conflict—aggressive yet oddly good-natured, with both sides recognizing they were part of something historic.

The Aftermath

Microsoft's aggressive bundling strategy eventually led to a landmark antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice. The government accused Microsoft of using its Windows monopoly to crush competitors like Netscape.

But by then, the damage was done. Netscape was acquired by AOL in 1998 and slowly faded into obscurity. The Mozilla dinosaur, however, would have the last laugh—evolving into the Firefox browser, which would eventually challenge IE's dominance in the 2000s.

Today, Internet Explorer itself is dead, discontinued by Microsoft in 2022. But photos of that audacious lawn prank live on, a reminder of when tech rivalries were fought with giant sculptures and good humor rather than just lawyers and press releases.

The employees who pulled off the stunt reportedly faced no disciplinary action. In fact, the prank became a point of pride within Microsoft—proof that even during the most intense corporate battle in tech history, there was still room for a little fun.