The End of Internet Explorer

According to W3Schools, the Google Chrome browser has 80% of the market. That means 8 in 10 people on the internet are using that browser. That’s a big number. What do the other 20% of people use? Options include Firefox, Safari (used on Apple devices) and Edge. The name you don’t see there is Internet Explorer.

And for good reason. Here’s why.

At one point in the late 90s, IE was virtually the only browser anyone had on their desktop, outside of AOL. But through a series of lawsuits, poor performance and a whole bunch of bad press, Microsoft’s browser fell out of favor over time. In a big way, actually. This is what led the Kings from Redmond to re-develop and re-package the web browsing tool, hoping to turn around skeptical public opinion. The Edge product listed above is their re-boot of IE.

Microsoft finally took the hint and got real about the future of their failing, once-mighty creation and, as of June this year, will end their support for the Internet Explorer browser. There are some caveats, of course. And MS said this about those who may actually still need access to manage dated technology.

“Customers are encouraged to move to Microsoft Edge, which provides support for legacy and modern websites and apps. For organizations with a dependency on legacy Internet Explorer-based sites and apps, sites will need to be configured to open in Microsoft Edge using Internet Explorer (IE) mode.”

This IE Mode will still have support through the year 2029 and beyond, so businesses won’t be stuck if they need compatibility with the archaic web engine. There definitely will be a push for organizations toward the newer tool, however. MS says they will “progressively” redirect users from IE to Edge in the coming months, and will disable the old software permanently through a Windows update at a future time.

This marks a true sunsetting of an Internet icon. And on the whole, not much will change online due to this long-overdue reaction. And while there are some cheers heard around the virtual world, for the makers of Windows, this does not in any way guarantee more market share or dominance. That 80% majority share from Google will be hard to topple quickly.