Claims

2,653 claims by 33 public figures and organisations, checked against the public record. Each has its quote, source, verdict and evidence. Read them without a key; browse by person.

6,750 claims, sorted by newest said. Choose a claim to read it in full.
VerdictPersonKindSaidClaimTopic
Mostly true Jeff Bezos Factual 1999 Amazon.com's employee base grew from approximately 600 to over 2,100 during 1998. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1999 Economics and markets
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 When customers ask Bill Gates what first step improves value from their information systems and collaboration, he always answers "E-mail." Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 1999 Amazon.com became the leading online video retailer within 6 weeks of adding video in November 1998. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1999 Economics and markets
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 Bill Gates reads all the e-mail that Microsoft employees send him. Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 Microsoft reduced its number of paper forms from more than 1,000 to a company-wide total of 60. Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 Bill Gates passes items from employee e-mail on to people for action. Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Bill Gates Prediction 1999 Merchants who treat e-commerce as more than a digital cash register will do the best. Bill Gates · Prediction · 1999 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 21 Mar 1998 In 1997 Amazon.com established long-term relationships with strategic partners including America Online, Yahoo!, Excite, Netscape, GeoCities, AltaVista, @Home and Prodigy. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 21 Mar 1998 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Prediction 21 Mar 1998 Through personalization, online commerce will in future accelerate the process of discovery for customers. Jeff Bezos · Prediction · 21 Mar 1998 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 21 Mar 1998 The share of Amazon.com orders from repeat customers grew from over 46% in Q4 1996 to over 58% in Q4 1997. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 21 Mar 1998 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Prediction 1998 Online bookselling and online commerce in general should prove to be a very large market, and it is likely that a number of companies will benefit significantly. Jeff Bezos · Prediction · 1998 Economics and markets
Mostly true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 In 1997 Amazon.com substantially enhanced its online store, adding gift certificates, 1-Click shopping, and more reviews, content, browsing options and recommendation features. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Technology
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 Amazon.com was the market leader in online bookselling at the end of 1997. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 Amazon.com dramatically lowered prices in 1997. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 Amazon.com's cash and investment balances at end of 1997 were $125 million, following its May 1997 IPO and a $75 million loan. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Promise 1998 Amazon.com plans to add music to its product offering. Jeff Bezos · Promise · 1998 Economics and markets
Mostly true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 By the end of 1997 Amazon.com had served more than 1.5 million customers, with revenue up 838% to $147.8 million. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1997 Amazon.com's sales grew from $15.7 million in 1996 to $147.8 million in 1997, an 838% increase. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1997 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 1997 Word of mouth is Amazon.com's most powerful customer acquisition tool. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1997 Economics and markets
Mostly false Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 George Gilder predicts that within five to ten years the Internet will essentially be free. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape builds cryptography into most of its products. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Andreessen said he thought a lot of companies were going to start taking advantage of "that"; the material does not say what "that" refers to. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Mosaic was basically written without bandwidth considerations in mind, designed for a really fast network at a time when its developers had the NSF T3 backbone (45 Mbps). Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The idle supercomputers sit unused because scientists prefer a DEC Alpha workstation, which is as fast or faster than a supercomputer at a fraction of the cost. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI compute, hardware and data
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Supercomputing centers cannot afford to remove their idle supercomputers from buildings; removal from the third floor costs $500,000. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI compute, hardware and data
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape did not have a major sales force in Europe as of June 1995. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The government set the OSI networking standard, which nobody uses. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI policy and governance
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Research funding in general, and for efforts like Mosaic in particular, dropped off in the early 1990s. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape has archived and sorted all incoming user feedback messages. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Among other things, commercialization will guarantee that the Net will be there. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Andreessen said the project he and Eric worked on never really had a manager. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Andreessen said that "we" basically declined to take a license fee because, at that point, they did not see any potential property issues. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Cryptography is export-controlled by the US government as a munition, and Netscape makes exportable versions of its software, which are the ones predominantly used on the Internet. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI policy and governance
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The Internet already existed when Andreessen began working at the university lab, and everybody there used it. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 In the 3 to 4 years before 1995, PCs went from a hobbyist toy to use by roughly 40 to 50 million people. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The networks in question all use TCP/IP, which was not a government standard. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Catalogs of Internet resources will be supported by advertising in the future. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape's global sales force consisted of six people in June 1995. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 In June 1995, Andreessen said he thought Netscape had about six million Navigator users on the public network, not counting users behind firewalls. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 One of the things Netscape tried to do was keep the concepts of client and server very separate. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mixed Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Early in his time at the University of Illinois, Andreessen started working in a research lab at the university's physics research facility. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Some day it should be possible for everyone to publish on the Net as easily as using word processing. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Technology
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Andreessen spends half an hour every morning reading news online, in addition to newspapers. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Other
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The Mosaic team designed Mosaic with end users as its target. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Internet access was never free; it always cost money. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Five or ten years is about the right timeframe to think about consumers shifting their commerce online, because that is about how long it takes for consumer habits to change on a broad scale. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Resolved true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 After the company shipped product in December, its revenues went from zero to a level where it was pretty much able to fund the bulk of its work and development. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Resolved true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Yahoo was started by Ph.D. students at Stanford. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mostly false Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Leaving aside access into the home, general bandwidth is improving in price-performance, or dropping in price, faster than microprocessors, by a factor of about four each year. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Bill Gates Prediction 1995 People always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Bill Gates · Prediction · 1995 Technology
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Factual Technology

“We build cryptography into most of our products.”

Marc Andreessen, Netscape COO, interviewee June 1995 Smithsonian Oral and Video Histories: Marc Andreessen (Smithsonian)

Netscape builds cryptography into most of its products.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

What would count as true or false

The test is whether, as of June 1995, more than half of Netscape's shipping products included built-in cryptography (for example SSL or encryption support). True: product documentation or contemporaneous reports show that most of Netscape's products then on sale (clients and servers) included cryptographic features. Mostly true: a clear majority did, with a minor exception or an ambiguity about which products count. Mixed: only about half did. Mostly false: cryptography was in only a minority of products, such as the flagship browser and one server. False: Netscape's products in mid-1995 generally lacked built-in cryptography.

Evidence

  1. HTTP and Security Carnegie Mellon University (AIST www paper, cs.cmu.edu) · 1 January 1995
    “Netscape has made SSL freely available and is encouraging its implementation in other products.”
  2. issue9508.txt (Electronic CIPHER, Issue 8, August 5, 1995) IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy · 5 August 1995
    “Support for Secure Courier is to be enabled before the end of 1995, and Intuit, Inc. has announced”
  3. The Browser Wars: The Fight for the Web's Front Door geschichte-der-informatik.de · 17 April 2026
    “Navigator shipped in December 1994. It was faster than Mosaic, more reliable, and full of features its predecessor lacked, persistent cookies, SSL encryption for secure transactions”
  4. The Browser Wars: The Fight for the Web's Front Door geschichte-der-informatik.de · 17 April 2026
    “Navigator shipped in December 1994. It was faster than Mosaic, more reliable, and full of features its predecessor lacked, persistent cookies, SSL encryption for secure transactions, JavaScript”
  5. Form S-3 Registration Statement, Netscape Communications Corporation U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (filed by Netscape Communications Corporation) · 30 October 1996
    “This open and secure discussion server is”
  6. Form S-3 Registration Statement, Netscape Communications Corporation U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (filed by Netscape Communications Corporation) · 30 October 1996
    “software products and tools, targeted primarily at corporate intranets, for use”
  7. Electronic CIPHER, Issue 8, August 5, 1995 IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy · 5 August 1995
    “In 1991, COCOM has decided to allow export of mass-market cryptographic software”
  8. Netscape (web browser) - Wikipedia Wikipedia
    “0.93 | Netscape | November 1994 | In-dev release - First version with Security (RSA/SSL) enabled”
  9. [PDF] FIPS PUB 140-1 Netscape Security Policy NIST Cryptographic Module Validation Program (hosting a Netscape-authored security policy) · 15 March 1999 Own record
    “supported platform and utilized by ALL Netscape client and server products.”
  10. [PDF] Secure Sockets Layer FAQ 1.1.1 - Trust Italia Consensus Development Corporation (SSL-Talk FAQ, maintained by Shannon Appel), hosted by Trust Italia · 26 September 2001
    “Netscape's browser and server products do not presently support”
  11. Unix Servers World Wide Web FAQ (unix-ag.org mirror)
    “Netscape Commerce Server (capable of secure transactions)”

Reasoning

Independent sources show Netscape Navigator shipped with SSL encryption by late 1994 (E3, E4, E8), and an undated FAQ calls the Commerce Server capable of secure transactions (E11). The FAQ excerpt in the evidence mentions only the Commerce Server [E11], so it shows nothing either way about whether other Netscape servers included security features. The only statement that all Netscape products used cryptography is Netscape's own 1999 document (E9), which doesn't describe June 1995. None of the evidence lists Netscape's full mid-1995 product line or the cryptography status of each product, so it can't show whether most products had it.

Cite this claim

Marc Andreessen, “Netscape builds cryptography into most of its products.” (said June 1995). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_14df31c8dee9, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_14df31c8dee9

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts and scores are made. The same data is on Hugging Face under CC BY 4.0.