Cello (web browser)

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Cello was an early Windows web browser created by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, released on June 8, 1993. It was the first web browser for Microsoft Windows, using Winsock to connect to the Internet and running on Windows 3.1/3.11, with some support for OS/2 and Windows NT 3.5. It was made to give lawyers quick access to legal information on the Web.

Cello had a simple, menu-driven interface (no toolbars) and supported HTTP 1.0, Gopher, read-only FTP, SMTP, Telnet, Usenet, WAIS, and other gateways. It included its own TCP/IP stack and later adopted Winsock. It was popular in 1993–1994 but declined after Mosaic for Windows and Netscape appeared, and development stopped. A planned Cello 2.0 was never released; the last public version was 1.01a in April 1994.

Cornell LII later licensed the Cello 2.0 code for use in other software, but the original site no longer hosts Cello. It can still be downloaded from mirror sites. Cello is remembered as an early, simple Windows browser that faced stability issues, did not render graphics well, and offered no web security, becoming a historical note in the first browser wars.