Web Explorer is lastly headed out to pasture.
As of Wednesday, Microsoft will now not help the once-dominant browser that legions of internet surfers liked to hate — and some nonetheless declare to adore. The 27-year-old utility now joins BlackBerry telephones, dial-up modems and Palm Pilots within the dustbin of tech historical past.
Web Explorer’s demise was not a surprise. A yr in the past, Microsoft mentioned that it was placing an finish to Web Explorer on June 15, 2022, pushing customers to its Edge browser, which was launched in 2015.
The corporate made clear then it was time to maneuver on.
“Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications,” Sean Lyndersay, basic supervisor of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, wrote in a May 2021 blog post.
Users marked Explorer’s passing on Twitter, with some referring to it as a “bug-ridden, insecure POS” or the “top browser for installing other browsers.” For others it was a second for 90′s nostalgia memes, whereas The Wall Road Journal quoted a 22-year-old who was sad to see Internet Explorer go.
Damian Dovarganes / AP
Microsoft launched the primary model of Web Explorer in 1995, the antediluvian period of internet browsing dominated by the primary extensively fashionable browser, Netscape Navigator. Its launch signaled the start of the tip of Navigator: Microsoft went on to tie Web Explorer and its ubiquitous Home windows working system collectively so tightly that many individuals merely used it by default as a substitute of Navigator.
The Justice Division sued Microsoft in 1997, saying it violated an earlier consent decree by requiring pc makers to make use of its browser as a situation of utilizing Home windows. It will definitely agreed to settle the antitrust battle in 2002 over its use of its Home windows monopoly to squash rivals. It additionally tangled with European regulators who mentioned that tying Web Explorer to Home windows gave it an unfair benefit over rivals comparable to Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera and Google’s Chrome.
Customers, in the meantime, complained that Web Explorer was gradual, liable to crashing and susceptible to hacks. Its market share, which within the early 2000s was over 90%, started to fade as customers discovered extra interesting options.
As we speak, the Chrome browser dominates with roughly a 65% share of the worldwide browser market, adopted by Apple’s Safari with 19%, in line with web analytics firm Statcounter. Web Explorer’s inheritor, Edge, lags with about about 4%, simply forward of Firefox.
