End of an era: the death of Internet Explorer

By Ryan Pullido
Eagle News Service

(Eagle News) — Internet Explorer, one of the last souvenirs of the 1990s, will be retired in just two days. In a blog post written by Microsoft Edge program manager Sean Lyndersay on May 19, 2021, Microsoft announced it will retire the program on June 15, 2022.

Internet Explorer was Microsoft’s first web browser and was the primary web browser used by many people in the 90s and 2000s. However, as more web browsers came to exist, people opted to use the faster and smoother web engines than relying on Internet Explorer. 

(Eagle News Service)

Internet Explorer has been the butt of long-running jokes on the Internet for many years. For younger people, its main purpose was to download other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, then never use it again. In short, the death of Internet Explorer has been foreseen by many. Yet despite the drastic decline of users, Microsoft still kept Internet Explorer around for three decades.

Despite keeping Explorer around, Microsoft also developed a new browser that catered to the modern user: Microsoft Edge. As Microsoft retires Explorer, the company aims to focus on making Microsoft Edge better with every new Windows update. However, even though Explorer is shutting down, Microsoft has also implemented Internet Explorer compatibility within Microsoft Edge. Even though Explorer may be passing on, its memory will still be alive and well within Edge. 

(Eagle News Service)