MS was so afraid of the web that IE achieved (by fair means or foul) 95% usage share between 1995 and 2003[0]. Be sure to check out the webs growth over that period. While the companies I listed may not be "cool" what they did, whether they liked it or not, is bring use of the http protocol to the mainstream. The point is that the protocol dictated the field they all had to compete on. Which is why Google has invested significant resources to dominate the protocol, but it's taken them a very long time.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer