Internet Explorer
IE was a massive success until it wasn’t. Launched in 1995 as an add-on package before becoming a part of the Windows 95 operating system, Internet Explorer quickly rose to fame, defeating Netscape in the browser wars before reaching a peak market share of around 95% in 2003. For people who grew up in the ‘90s and early 2000s, IE was the gateway to the internet—an open door to a vast digital world.
The demise of this once king of browsers was just as swift. Microsoft stubbornly left the browser out to dry while competitors like Mozilla arrived with more features, faster loading speeds, and support for international web standards. When Google’s Chrome browser entered the market, IE’s fate was decided.
Chrome was faster, cleaner, and presented sites as they were meant to be. After a rapid decline, IE would go from a market share of 65% as recently as 2009 to less than 1% today. It would eventually be replaced by “legacy Edge,” which would be replaced by “new Edge,” Microsoft’s current Chromium-based browser. On June 15, 2022, Microsoft dropped support for Internet Explorer, ending an era that lasted for 26 years.
