Lou Montulli
Louis J. Montulli II | |
|---|---|
| Born | Louis J. Montulli II |
| Occupation | Software developer |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Known for | Creation of Lynx, invention of HTTP cookies, founding engineer at Netscape |
Louis J. Montulli II, commonly referred to as Lou Montulli, is a software developer notable for his impact on web browser technology. During 1991–1992 at the University of Kansas, he collaborated with Michael Grobe and Charles Rezac to create the text-based web browser Lynx, which remains among the earliest browsers still operational today.
Career
Montulli played a key role as a founding engineer at Netscape in 1994, where he was responsible for developing the networking components of the initial Netscape browsers. His groundbreaking work includes the invention of HTTP cookies, the introduction of the blink element, advancements in server push and client pull methods, implementation of HTTP proxying, and advocacy for animated GIFs within browsers. At Netscape, he also contributed to forming the HTML working group at the W3C and participated in drafting the HTML 3.2 standard. Montulli was honored as one of six individuals inducted into the World Wide Web Hall of Fame during the 1994 First International Conference on the World-Wide Web.
In 1998, he co-founded Epinions, which later became part of Shopping.com. In 2002, he earned recognition as one of the top 100 innovators under 35 by the MIT Technology Review's TR100 list.
Montulli established Memory Matrix in 2004 and acted as its CEO; following its acquisition by Shutterfly Inc. in 2005, he served as Vice President of Client Engineering until 2007.
He went on to co-found cloud storage company Zetta.net in 2008 and took on the role of co-founder and CTO at JetInsight starting in 2015.
In 2022, Montulli was acknowledged among Hidden Heroes for his pivotal technological achievements, including inventing the HTTP cookie and creating Lynx.
Ongoing projects
During his work on Netscape's browser, Montulli developed the Fishcam, one of the pioneering sites to offer a live image feed, famously featured as the Fishcam Easter egg within early versions of Netscape. Although Netscape continued hosting Fishcam well beyond its browser's prime, after a short hiatus, it resumed hosting in 2009 and is recognized as one of the longest continuously operating live websites.