Lou Montulli

Updated: 12/31/2022 by Computer Hope
Lou Montulli

Name: Lou Montulli

Born: c. 1971

Computer-related contributions

  • Programmer known for his work in producing web browsers. In 1992 he co-authored Lynx, a text-based web browser, with Michael Grobe and Charles Rezac while at the University of Kansas.
  • In 1994, he became a founding engineer of Netscape Communications and programmed the networking code for the first versions of the Netscape web browser.
  • Helped create HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) cookies, the blink tag, server push and client pull, HTTP proxying, and encouraging the implementation of animated GIFs into the browser.
  • While working on the Netscape browser, Lou built the FishCam, one of the earliest live image websites, famously built into early versions of the Netscape browser as an Easter egg. Netscape hosted the FishCam for many years. After a brief hiatus in 2009, the FishCam found a new home on the web, and it is still running today.

Honors and awards

  • Named to the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35 (2002).
  • Inducted into the World Wide Web Hall of Fame (1994).

Websites