Buzz
Internet Explorer will be officially discontinued by the end of this year, marking the end of its 25-year mission to connect us to the Internet world as its name and purpose intended from the beginning to becoming a browser... just used to download other browsers. Do you know that?
Was IE one of the first graphical web browsers for humans?
In 1990, the first browser created by Tim Berners-Lee, director of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), was called WorldWideWeb (written together) and later renamed Nexus. It was the only tool available at the time for users to access the Internet.
In 1992, the Lynx browser - a text-only browser developed by the University of Kansas computing center was released, and it continues to be developed to this day. In 1993, Mosaic - the first browser capable of displaying images alongside text (graphical) - was introduced. It quickly became the world's most popular browser, especially after Mosaic evolved into Netscape Navigator.
IE was developed with a very small team.
The original IE development team consisted of only 5 or 6 individuals. Thomas Reardon initiated the IE project in the summer of 1994. The IE development team then expanded to nearly 100 individuals by 1996 and grew to over 1000 participants by 1999.IE 1 was codenamed O'Hare.
Internet Explorer 1.0Microsoft frequently assigns codenames to products under development. O'Hare was the codename for version 1.0 of Internet Explorer, while the codename for Windows 95 was Chicago. The name O'Hare was chosen based on the name of O'Hare International Airport, the largest airport in Illinois. Microsoft revealed that the name O'Hare also signified 'a departure point to faraway places from Chicago (Windows 95).'IE 2 was crafted to emulate Netscape Navigator.
Netscape Navigator dominated the global browser market in the mid-1990s, prompting Microsoft to emulate its success. Microsoft endeavored to incorporate features and designs from Netscape Navigator that made it user-friendly into IE. Many websites were only compatible with Netscape Navigator, leading Microsoft to implement these changes in IE, such as HTML features and the interface emulation of Netscape. IE 2 also marked the first appearance of a Microsoft browser on Mac OS.IE 3 marks a significant breakthrough for Microsoft.
It wasn't until IE 3 that Microsoft's browser gained traction. With the advantage of being bundled for free with Windows, IE 3 fiercely competed with Netscape Navigator. This version also integrated a reverse-engineered JavaScript engine called JScript for IE, and much of the Spyglass source code was replaced compared to previous versions. Speaking of Spyglass, it was also the source code of Mosaic, the predecessor of Netscape Navigator.Microsoft encountered trouble with Spyglass when integrating IE into Windows 95.In 1994, when Thomas Reardon began developing IE, he used source code from Spyglass, Inc.'s Mosaic. Under the licensing agreement, Microsoft had to pay royalties as a percentage of Internet Explorer's quarterly revenue. However, IE was integrated and distributed for free on Windows, so technically, Microsoft didn't make any money from IE, and Spyglass didn't receive any royalties. By 1997, Microsoft and Spyglass, Inc. found themselves in court over this copyright dispute, and Microsoft ultimately paid $8 million to Spyglass to buy out the technology rights.IE emerged as a force in the 'browser wars phase 1'.
The first browser war began with the dominance of two browsers in the late '90s: IE and Netscape Navigator. IE 4's release marked the first shot fired, and it was this competition that drove web browsers to evolve from source code to design, leading to what we have today to read this article.As Netscape Navigator competed with IE for dominance, IE began playing a game-changer by integrating IE into every copy of Windows sold. This made IE the default browser on Windows, and not many users cared to download another browser.IE becomes the reigning king of the browser market.Achieving a 95% market share was the milestone IE reached during its peak period in 2002-2003, a feat no other browser has been able to overthrow, including Chrome.Uninstalling IE is nearly impossible.
Microsoft not only integrates IE into Windows but also makes it extremely difficult to uninstall. Because IE is deeply integrated into Windows, attempting to uninstall it will affect many Windows features and may slow down performance.Some websites can only be viewed on IE.
Indeed, back in the day, web browsers weren't freely available for download. Even IE and Netscape Navigator, in their early versions, had to be purchased either as part of software packages or as standalone licenses. For example, IE was included in the Microsoft Plus! package for Windows 95, priced at $49.99, while Netscape Navigator was only free for non-commercial users.With IE integrated into Windows and serving as the tool available for users to download other browsers, browser developers seized this opportunity to develop and release free browsers, competing with IE. Just imagine, you open up Windows and there's no browser—how would you download Chrome or Firefox?Microsoft sued for monopoly.In May 1998, the US government sued Microsoft for maintaining an unlawful monopoly in the computer market, specifically with IE. Judge Thomas Jackson in 2000 convicted Microsoft and ordered it to split the company into two units: one for operating system development and one for other software. However, this split order never materialized.Despite being released 11 years ago, IE 4 still retains a small user base.In 2008, IE 4 maintained a market share of 0.01%, equivalent to approximately 150 thousand users.IE hides an 'easter egg.'
Typing 'about:mozilla' into the address bar of IE 4 would trigger a blue screen similar to Windows BOSD.Microsoft employees brought the IE logo to place it at Netscape's headquarters.
With the successful launch of IE 4, the IE development team celebrated by surprising their competitor, Netscape Navigator. One morning, when Netscape employees arrived at work, they discovered... a giant IE logo placed on the fountain outside Netscape's building.Microsoft poured money into IE.Developing a proprietary web browser like IE for Windows consumed significant resources for Microsoft, especially during the peak of the first browser war. By the late 1990s, Microsoft was estimated to spend over $100 million annually on IE.The second challenger to IE and the second browser war.
During its heyday, IE had few competitors aside from Netscape Navigator. However, when Netscape decided to open-source Navigator's code, a non-profit group took it up and developed a browser called Phoenix. This group was known as the 'Mozilla community,' and eventually, the Phoenix project transitioned to Firebird due to trademark issues. Firebird was later renamed Firefox, and Mozilla Firefox was first released in 2004. The fiery browser immediately garnered 60 million downloads in just 9 months.IE popularized favicons.
A favicon, short for favorite icon, is an icon associated with a website that appears in the browser's address bar, bookmarks bar, and tabs. IE 5 was the first version to support favicons, released in 1999 with Windows 98 SE.IE pioneered mobile web browsers.
During the early days of internet-connected phones, IE was present on Microsoft's mobile operating systems like Windows CE 1.0, introduced in 1996 as Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE). PIE 4, released in 2002 on Pocket PC 2002, supported many features similar to IE on computers, such as ActiveX, CSS, VBScript, HTTPS, and HTML. Later, PIE was rebranded as Internet Explorer Mobile and was distributed and updated by Microsoft through various versions of Windows Mobile—a popular OS on PDAs/PPCs in the early 2000s and one of the three dominant mobile operating systems alongside Symbian and Palm OS. Subsequently, with Windows Phone, IE also became the default browser.South Korea mandates IE for e-commerce.
South Korea, despite its technological advancements, restricts online shopping and banking to IE only. This is due to regulations mandating e-commerce services to utilize ActiveX—a plug-in exclusive to IE—for enhanced security with digital certificates. South Korea implemented this law in the late 90s, and to date, IE's browser market share in South Korea remains significant, reaching 14.08% according to a 2020 statistic.
IE faces numerous security issues.
Microsoft released IE 6 in 2001, optimizing it for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. IE's deep integration into the operating system attracted security experts' attention. Opening an unreliable website with IE could lead to malware infecting the computer, resulting in data theft. PCWorld once dubbed IE the 'most insecure software on the planet.'
Microsoft spends 5 years developing and releasing IE 7
Released in 2001, IE 6 gained popularity for its integration with Windows XP—the highly successful consumer operating system from Microsoft. However, it took Microsoft 5 years to release IE 7 in 2006, featuring a series of security updates, Windows RSS support, and optimization for Windows Vista—a contrasting operating system to XP in terms of success. IE 7 also introduced tabbed browsing and a phishing filter.
However, despite its advancements, users were hesitant to upgrade from IE 6 to IE 7. This reluctance prevented IE 7, although superior, from competing with IE 6 directly, creating an opportunity for emerging competitors.
IE 8 in the face of numerous market challenges
In 2009, Microsoft released IE 8 alongside Windows 7, but it didn't gain much success as the market already had browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera. IE 8 was improved in terms of web browsing performance, better support for modern websites, and introduced features such as accelerators, automatic crash recovery, an enhanced SmartScreen Filter derived from IE 7's Phishing Filter, page suggestions, and InPrivate browsing mode. However, IE 8 failed to pass the Acid3 test—a web standards performance test by the Web Standards Project, scoring only 24 out of 100 points, making it inferior to other browsers.
An Australian retail site imposes an 'IE 7 tax'
Kogan, an Australian retailer, imposed a 6.8% tax on those using IE 7 to make purchases on their site. They used this tax to compensate for the time and resources their IT team had to spend ensuring their website displayed correctly on an outdated browser.
Microsoft and the 'The Browser You Loved to Hate' campaign
In 2012, Microsoft released a comedic video featuring an actor portraying a psychiatric patient obsessed with removing IE from other people's computers, from his mom's to his coworkers'. This campaign was aimed at promoting IE 9.
IE 9 proves its worth
Released in 2011, the public no longer hesitated with IE after a series of performance and security issues. In the marketing campaign for IE 9, Microsoft sought to regain user trust. One way they did this was by releasing IE 9 as a standalone application, not tied to an operating system like previous versions. The interface of IE 9 was revamped, security tools were improved, and many performance issues were addressed. As a result, IE 9 scored very high on the Acid3 test, and tech sites rated it on par with other leading browsers.
Google Chrome surpasses IE in 2012
After years of dominance, IE finally lost its throne to Google Chrome. Despite Google only releasing Chrome in 2008, it reached a market share of 29.15% in March 2012, officially surpassing IE's 28.87% according to StatCounter.
IE 11: Performance on par with Google Chrome
Microsoft continued to enhance IE, with IE 11 launching in 2013 alongside Windows 8 delivering performance even better than Chrome and Firefox in tests like SunSpider and WebGL. Additionally, an advantage of IE 11 at the time was that it consumed less RAM when opening multiple tabs compared to Chrome or Firefox. This was also the final version of Internet Explorer and the version still found on Windows 10 today, although it is slated for permanent removal in the future.
Personally, I once attempted to use IE 11 on Windows 8 back in the day. It was indeed fast, but what prevented me from using it for long was the hassle of dealing with Windows 8, as IE 11 had both interfaces.
IE has a mascot character
At the Anime Festival Asia 2013 event, Microsoft Singapore unveiled the mascot character of Internet Explorer - an anime girl named Inori Aizawa. Designed by Collateral Damage Studios, this character even has her own Facebook page.
Microsoft leveraged Inori Aizawa to attract anime fans to use IE, but this character was never used as the face of IE globally, only in Asia.
The end date of IE
Microsoft has just announced that starting from June 15, 2022, IE 11 will be removed from most computers running Windows 10. Microsoft 365 and other Microsoft apps/services will also cease to support access via IE from August 17th of this year. However, Microsoft will continue to support IE until 2029 to allow organizations (such as banks in South Korea) more time to transition to other browsers.
