Internet Explorer bids farewell after 26 long years. Once upon a time, it was a market leader working along with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
Recently, Microsoft announced that it will end support for Internet Explorer 11 on June 15, 2022. While sharing the news Microsoft said that the Internet Explorer is less secure than other browsers and does not bring an up-to-date browsing experience.
Instead, the mega-giant company wants its audience to use Microsoft edge. It is a modern web browser based on Google’s open-source Chromium code. And works well on both laptop as well as mobile.
Explained: The growth and descent of Internet Explorer
Microsoft’s founder and then CEO Bill Gates wanted to dominate the browser market along with the PC part. And Internet Explorer’s development started a year before it rolled out web browser in 1995.
This web browser was launched by Thomas Reardon. He along with a team of six people worked on IE 1.0. But at that time, it was not able to attain global supremacy as it lacked many features.
By the time version, 3.0 was released in 1996, Microsoft’s flagship browser became popular. Furthermore, when IE 4.0 was released Microsoft’s ambition to rule the web became a reality.
The arrival of free to use IE 5.0 in 1999 with Windows 98 further helped the company to ease off-market share from Netscape.
By 2002, Internet Explorer was crushing the competition with a 95 per cent market share.
When IE 6 arrived, it was riddled with bugs and security issues. This led to its downfall and made it unpopular. In 2006, the market for web browsers changed and Microsoft launched IE 7.
In addition to this, the debut of Firefox (2004) and Google Chrome (2008) made Internet Explorer less relevant. Also, mobile operating systems like IOS and Android changed people’s choice to use IE.
Thus, Microsoft was not able to dominate the mobile operating system. Unlike Google and Apple, IE could not face the competition.
Over the years, Internet Explorer has gone through several redesigns as more people turn to Google’s Chrome, which rules both desktop and mobile platforms.
