SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images On Wednesday, tech giant Microsoft officially shut down support for Internet Explorer (IE), the once-dominant web browser – and even led to a US government antitrust case. Internet Explorer was officially released on August 16, 1995, and quickly emerged victorious in the so-called “Browser War” of the late 1990s, defeating rival Netscape. However, Microsoft’s market dominance did not last long, and the release of Firefox in 2002 led to a wave of open source browsers, including Google Chrome, which was released in 2008. That was not the end for IE, but perhaps to mention the late Sir Winston Churchill was the “end of the beginning”. Microsoft saw so much and finally developed Edge, a more secure and modern browser released in 2015. “IE’s death marks an official end to the early days of the Internet, when access to and aggregation of content drove Internet businesses more than just advertising. Microsoft’s activities around IE, including its integration with Windows, also led to “The company has been accused of violating Sherman antitrust law,” said technology industry analyst Charles King of Pund-IT. “While Microsoft escaped disintegration, its victory in the ‘Browser War’ was short-lived and IE began to lose ground to competitors, including Firefox and Google Chrome,” King explained. “The story of the rise of IE to dominance and then the final fall into irrelevance parallels the evolution of e-commerce and other activities. It was an exciting journey into what would once be considered an extremely unlikely end.” Twitter Reactions: Browser History The end of official IE support came on social media on Wednesday and there were about 100,000 tweets dedicated to the browser. To some it was like the death of an old friend. The official Twitter account of the news site fin-tech Morning Brew (@MorningBrew) shared a picture of Pixar cartoon character Woody, declaring “a long time partner” and captioning: “Goodbye is never easy. After 27 years, Microsoft will officially shut down Internet Explorer from Wednesday this week. “ “Microsoft is withdrawing Internet Explorer today after almost 27 years. RIP,” said Dexerto (@Dexerto), a news website that influences games and video games. In a more humorous way, the humor account LizaMinnelliOutlives (@LiZaOutlives) wrote on Twitter, “Liza Minnelli has surpassed the Internet Explorer browser. After 27 years, Microsoft is officially shutting it down.” Others were less polite in evaluating the role of IE in browser history. “You will miss Internet Explorer,” suggested the Malaysian news website MGAG (@My_MGAG), which shared a death cartoon telling IE it was time to leave. A similar topic was shared by web video maker Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD), who joked, tweeting: “Today marks the official end of Microsoft support for Internet Explorer. RIP in the # 1 Chrome installer of all time “ “Respect ++ To Internet Explorer!” added @mn_google, which noted that you could not download another browser without IE! IE joined the 27 Club – Or did it? Although the browser did not materialize on its 27th birthday, which is technically still two months away, some users suggested that IE became a member of the infamous “27 Clubs” of musicians, artists and actors who died at the age of 27. Among those in the club of 27 are blues musician Robert Johnson, Rolling Stones brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. “not [sic] “The internet explorer enters the club of 27”, @mountbellyache wrote on Twitter. @Chrisforfree also wrote on Twitter: “Oh, no IE joined the club of 27” “Internet Explorer is about to join the Club of 27. Statcounter shows the sharp decline of IE on desktops (blue line – let’s not even go into how mobile browsing dominates visits these days). Goodbye IE, by contrast “with Kurt, Jimi, Jim, Amy et al. you did not shake my world”, said Evan Kypreos ironically (@EvanKypreos). TwitterJavaScript is not available. “Unlike the rest of the 27 club, IE seems to have had a great time,” added @willkanellos. i.e. it seems to be now only a part of our browser history.
