217: THE BROWSER WARS ARE BACK. THIS TIME WITH AI AGENTS!

The 1995 Playbook Returns

Mark Anderson's Netscape owned 90% of browser usage in 1995. Sixteen months later, Microsoft had released Internet Explorer, bundled it with every copy of Windows, and begun systematically cutting off Netscape's air supply. The tactics were documented in DOJ trial records: bundling, embrace-extend-extinguish, and distribution deals that paid AOL 25 cents per user to make IE the default. By 2001, Netscape's market share had collapsed to under 5%.

The pattern matters more than the history lesson. Microsoft didn't care about browsers. They cared about protecting Windows. When Netscape threatened to reduce Windows to "a poorly debugged set of device drivers," Microsoft redirected their entire company toward crushing that threat. The browser was the defensive weapon, not the product.

Google's Chrome Moment

Google faces the same existential pressure today. ChatGPT answers questions people used to Google. Perplexity pulls search traffic. OpenAI launched its own browser. The DOJ found Google guilty of maintaining an illegal search monopoly. So what does Google do? The same thing Microsoft did in 1995.

In January 2026, Google started shipping Gemini Auto Browse into Chrome. An AI agent built into a browser that 3 billion people already use. This isn't about building the best AI agent. It's about protecting search revenue. Different decade, same reflex.

Thirty Browsers in Eighteen Months

The capability threshold was crossed in late 2024. Anthropic released computer use agents in October, then MCP in November. OpenAI launched Operator in January 2025. Once one company proved reliable webpage interaction was possible, everybody piled in.

Now count the players: Comet from Perplexity, Atlas from OpenAI, Gens Spark with $100 million in funding, open source frameworks like Browser Use and Stagehand, enterprise APIs from every major AI company. Most of them run on Google's Chromium engine, which creates deeper lock-in than IE bundling ever achieved. Even the competitors are built on Google's foundation.

The Stakes Got Higher

The nineties fight was about what people see. Ad impressions. Eyeballs. The agentic browser fight is about what AI agents buy, book, and do on your behalf. Amazon sued Perplexity and sent cease-and-desist letters over Comet's automated shopping feature. They recognize the threat: whoever controls the agent controls a commerce layer worth trillions.

Traffic from AI browsers to US retail sites increased 4,700% year over year in July 2025 according to Adobe Analytics. These visitors spent 32% more time on site and viewed 10% more pages. This isn't future traffic. It's happening now.

What Breaks When Agents Browse

AI agents don't see your website the way humans do. They navigate by reading HTML structure. They fill forms by interpreting labels. They click buttons based on what those buttons say, not their color or position. Aggressive CAPTCHAs, hover-to-load interactions, infinite scroll, unlabeled buttons, heavy client-side rendering: all of these break agent interactions.

What helps agents is what helps screen readers. Semantic HTML with proper button and form elements. Clear descriptive labels. Server-rendered content. If your site depends on JavaScript to load core content, a large chunk of these agents won't see it at all.

The Path Forward

Don't optimize for one agentic browser. Build for web standards that work across all of them. Make your site worth visiting, not just worth scraping. Offer value an AI agent can't replicate. Build direct audience relationships through email and communities so you aren't dependent on intermediaries.

Regulation won't save you. The DOJ took six years to settle with Microsoft, and Netscape was already dead by then. The same timeline is playing out with Google's antitrust case. If your website becomes invisible infrastructure rather than a destination, no lawsuit will bring your traffic back. Test your site with an agentic browser today. See what works, see what breaks, and fix it before the land grab is over.

For the full breakdown of every agentic browser, automation framework, and enterprise API mentioned in this episode, read The Agentic Browser Landscape in 2026: A Complete Guide.