Internet Explorer: The End of an Era

The end of an Era for Internet Explorer

Starting to notice small problems when using Internet Explorer?

2016 marks the sour end of an era for the antiquated browser.

After the 12th January 2016, the multi-billion dollar corporate giant, Microsoft officially cut its ties with Internet explorer. Effectively they dropped the internet browser from its product suite. Microsoft no longer supports the platform either. This means that throughout the year, we may have still technically been able to use Internet Explorer to browse online. However, we would have started to notice that particular functions and features are starting to look somewhat… sloppy. Or maybe they don’t even work at all! 

Why is this happening?

There was once a day where Internet Explorer dominated the online browsing community, and was the preferred internet browser of choice for a vast majority of the online population. Almost 20 years down the track and the browsing environment has changed almost completely. With new alternative and increasingly modern looking browsers like Google Chrome, FireFox and Safari appearing on the horizon, Internet Explorer had eventually fallen to the back of the pack in terms of popularity with its considerably inferior functionality and various software and security issues found in comparison to their newer competitors. 

Is this a good thing?

One of the first truly successful, alternative browsers to Internet Explorer was introduced back in 2003 when Apple created their own internet browser, prompting most Apple Mac owners to jump ship to the online browser, Safari. Rumours of security issues and a specific proneness to malicious software, as well as various problems with updating “Adobe Flash Player” were easily fixed by jumping onto the stylish Google Chrome browser.

Combined with an emerging environment of new, and ultimately better internet browsers,  one of the final and most compelling factors which ultimately sealed the fate for Internet Explorer was the fact that it was a sheer nightmare for web developers to support,  and it seems like the rest has been downhill for IE from there.

Issues with Internet Explorer.

As you know, Internet Explorer had many versions, in fact almost too many to keep track of – and every time there was a new update, (i.e. whenever Explore 9, 10, or 11 was released), a web developer would have to design a website that was compatible with all superseded versions of the browser (how bizarre does that sound?!). This might explain why if you’re using an older version of internet explorer, certain features would cease to function correctly unless you were to update to the absolute newest version. 

The easiest way to explain this situation is to think of Internet Explorer as an old dilapidated building. A building’s foundations are old or cracked. Then that business has to spend money and time fixing the building’s problems on each of the previous floors each time they wish to build another level up. However, if this business were just to scrap the old building, and to move over to a completely new premises built the right way from the very beginning, in time this would become much more cost effective.  

But what’s replacing Internet Explorer?

And so, Edge has replaced the antiquated Internet Explorer.

This is in an attempt to regain the market share lost to other browsers over the years. In fact, you may have noticed a new icon popping up on our Microsoft computer screens. 

Microsoft Edge is Windows 10’s new browsing platform. Edge has replaced Internet Explorer on all new Microsoft desktops and devices. Microsoft Edge boasts a range of new features you wouldn’t find on the old Internet Explorer platform. These include:

• the ability to annotate webpages,
• the ability to show notifications on your computer from websites like Facebook; and
• the option to use Cortana (Microsoft’s equivalent to “Siri”)

All to make browsing the web easier. 

What do we use instead?

And so it seems that there’ll come a time where we’ll only talk about Internet Explorer in the past tense.

Where we might sit around a table and laugh with our friends about the frustrations we once endured using the antiquated platform. But can Microsoft really bring itself back to the forefront of internet browsing programs with their new browser Microsoft Edge? The chances aren’t looking too bad, but only time will tell. Watch this space for more news on the demise of Internet Explorer, and the “rise” of the new Microsoft Edge.

For now, what we recommend that any Explorer users download Google Chrome in order to avoid experiencing further problems with the old Explorer browser, and to help with a smooth transition across the browsers. Or are you currently using and have any opinions of the new Microsoft Edge platform? Let us know by using the contact form!