There were 16-bit and 32-bit versions depending on the OS. Version 3 came bundled with Internet Mail and News, NetMeeting, and an early version of the Windows Address Book, and was itself included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. This version was the first version of Internet Explorer to use the blue 'e' logo, which later became a symbol of the browser. It introduced support for ActiveX controls, Java applets, inline multimedia, and the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) system for content metadata. IE3 was the first commercial browser with Cascading Style Sheets support. In September 1997 it was superseded by Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. During its tenure, IE market share went from roughly 3–9% in early 1996 to 20–30% by the end of 1997. It was the first more widely used version of Internet Explorer, although it did not surpass Netscape or become the browser with the most market share. It was Microsoft's first browser release with a major internal development component.
It began serious competition against Netscape Navigator in the first Browser war. Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 ( IE3) is a graphical web browser released on Augby Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and on Janufor Apple Mac OS (see IE for Mac).
