Internet Explorer, about to disappear? 1:17
(CNN Business) - Internet Explorer is so denigrated that even Microsoft is turning its back on it.
Microsoft announced this week that its Teams workplace chat software will no longer be available in Internet Explorer as of November 30, and that its 365 applications, including Office products, will no longer work in IE as of August 17. from 2021.
It's a momentous decision that adds another nail in the coffin of one of the most hated software products of all time. But IE is not going away yet.
IE is miraculously still standing after 25 years. Although it was once the most widely used web browser, it has been on a steady downward trajectory for years. Its share of the browser market fell below the 50% threshold in 2010 and now stands at around 4%, according to browser usage tracker NetMarketShare. Google's Chrome is currently the leader in browsers, with a 71% market share.
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Internet Explorer debuted in 1995 as part of Windows 95 and became an instant hit. It wiped out Netscape Navigator and achieved a virtual monopoly in the early 2000s. At its peak in 2002, Internet Explorer dominated 95% of the browser market.
But Microsoft didn't innovate, leaving Internet Explorer 6 only collecting dust and cobwebs for five years. That frustrated customers and made them flee in search of better options. Internet Explorer became synonymous with bugs, security problems, and outdated technology.
Microsoft finally released IE7 in 2006, but the damage was done. Microsoft paved the way for Firefox and then Chrome to overtake it.
It wasn't until Internet Explorer 9 in 2011 that Microsoft released a modern browser. Even so, to this day, IE still doesn't support extensions, isn't available on non-Windows devices, and doesn't sync with other devices by default - all mainstays of Chrome and Firefox.
Microsoft recognizes that IE is not ideal for web browsing.
"Customers have been using IE 11 since 2013, when the online environment was much less sophisticated than the current landscape," the company said in its announcement Monday. "Since then, newer browsers and web standards, such as the new Microsoft Edge, have enabled better and more innovative online experiences," he added.
So for the past five years, Microsoft has tried, unsuccessfully, to kill Internet Explorer.
In a "Ask Me Anything" Reddit chat in 2014, Microsoft Internet Explorer engineers acknowledged that the company was considering a name change to "separate us from negative perceptions" about the browser.
Instead, Microsoft developed an entirely new browser, releasing Edge in 2015. But Edge didn't actually replace IE: Internet Explorer to this day is pre-installed on Windows PCs alongside Edge.
Microsoft has continued to ship IE with Windows to ensure corporate applications continue to function properly. Corporations tend to be very slow to adopt new versions of browsers, particularly if they create custom applications for them.
Most Windows 10 PC owners probably never noticed that IE is installed on their computers. Edge, a modern browser, is based on Google's open source Chrome Chrome and has gained much more traction than IE.
Microsoft said this week that IE is not going away yet.
"We want to make it clear that IE 11 is not going away and that our customers' legacy applications and investments in IE 11 will continue to work," Microsoft said.
However, the company noted that its latest version of the Edge browser supports web applications built for IE, so customers don't have to keep switching browsers. Maybe IE won't last forever after all.
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