The End of IE, the End of an Era

According to W3Schools, the Google Chrome browser dominates over 80% of the market. What does that mean exactly? That means that about 8 in 10 people on the internet are using that browser. So what do the other 20% of people use? Most definitely not Internet Explorer (IE) – not anymore, of course. Various other options include Safari (on MACs), Firefox, and Edge. Now you may be wondering, what happened to IE?

At one point in the late 1990s (wow, that seems so far away), Internet Explorer was essentially the only browser anyone had on their desktop, besides the famous AOL, of course. But through a series of lawsuits, poor performance and tons of bad press, Microsoft’s browser became a non-favorite. This is what led the Kings from Redmond to re-develop and re-package the web browsing tool, hoping to turn around negative public opinion. The Edge product is basically 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, are ending their tech support for the IE browser. There are some caveats, of course. Microsoft said this about those who may actually still need access to the outdated technology…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.”

For those still stuck on this relic, the IE Mode will still have support through the year 2029 and beyond, so businesses won’t have the fear of being stuck if they need compatibility with the antiquated web engine. However, there definitely will be a push for organizations towards the newer tool. MS says they will “progressively” redirect users from IE to Edge in the coming months. They will also disable the old software permanently through a Windows update at a future time.

This marks a true sunsetting of an Internet icon. And while there is some excitement heard around the virtual world of its departure, for the makers of Windows, this does not in any way guarantee more market share or dominance. That 80% majority share from Google will still be pretty hard to compete with.