From Browser King to Internet Meme: The Internet Explorer Story
For nearly two decades, that little blue "e" was how most people accessed the web. Then it became something
Once the king of the internet, Internet Explorer went from being everyone’s default browser to the butt of online jokes.
For nearly two decades, that little blue “e” was how most people accessed the web. Then it became something else: a symbol of everything slow and frustrating about technology. When Microsoft finally retired it in June 2022, the internet responded with memes. “Thanks for helping us download other browsers,” people joked. That pretty much sums up the Internet Explorer story.
How Microsoft Won
Microsoft launched Internet Explorer in August 1995. Back then, Netscape Navigator owned the internet with over 90 percent of users. Internet Explorer barely registered. Nobody cared about it.
Microsoft had one massive advantage though: Windows. Every new computer came with Windows. And starting in 1996, every Windows computer came with Internet Explorer already installed. No download. No choice. Just there.
The strategy worked. By 1998, Internet Explorer had overtaken Netscape. By 2002, it hit 95 percent market share. Ninety-five percent. Nearly everyone using the internet was using Internet Explorer. Netscape collapsed. AOL bought what was left in 1998, but the browser was finished.
Microsoft had crushed the competition. Internet Explorer was the internet. The company poured over $100 million per year into it, with more than 1,000 people working on the project.
The dominance triggered legal problems. The US government sued Microsoft in 1998 for illegally maintaining a monopoly. A judge even ordered Microsoft split into two companies in 2000. That order got overturned later, but Microsoft spent years dealing with lawsuits and restrictions.
None of it mattered. By 2003, Internet Explorer controlled 95 percent of browsers. Microsoft had won.
Then They Stopped Trying
Victory brought something unexpected: nothing.
Internet Explorer 6 came out in August 2001. Then Microsoft went silent. No major updates. No new versions. Internet Explorer 7 wouldn’t appear until 2006. Five years of basically nothing.
During those five years, the web kept changing. Internet Explorer didn’t. It became slow. Buggy. Full of security holes. Viruses and spyware exploited Internet Explorer’s flaws constantly. Simply visiting certain websites could infect your computer.
Web developers started hating it. Websites that worked perfectly fine in other browsers broke in Internet Explorer. Developers had to write special code just for IE. The phrase “best viewed in Internet Explorer” appeared everywhere, not as a recommendation but as an apology.
Microsoft had achieved total dominance and decided innovation was optional. Why improve when you’ve already won? Users couldn’t switch anyway. Or so they thought. The Internet Explorer story was about to take a dramatic turn.
The Competitors Arrived
Mozilla launched Firefox in November 2004. It was free, fast, and actually secure. Within nine months, 60 million people downloaded it. By 2006, Firefox had grabbed nearly 30 percent of the market.
Firefox gave people tabs, extensions, and importantly, a choice. For the first time since Netscape died, users had a real alternative.
Internet Explorer’s market share started dropping. By 2009, it still held 59 percent, but the trend was clear. People were leaving.
Then Google released Chrome in September 2008. Built from scratch, Chrome was faster and cleaner than Internet Explorer. It introduced clever features like separate processes for each tab, so one crashed tab wouldn’t kill your entire browser.
Chrome exploded. After one year, it had 1 percent market share. After two years, 6 percent. By year three, 15 percent. In May 2012, Chrome overtook Internet Explorer as the world’s most used browser.
Internet Explorer had ruled for 14 years. That reign was over.
The decline accelerated. Internet Explorer plunged from 95 percent in 2003 to under 50 percent by 2010. By 2020, it held under 5 percent. Microsoft had gone from total dominance to irrelevance in less than two decades.
Microsoft Tried to Fix It
Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 each brought improvements. Too late. Internet Explorer’s reputation as slow and insecure was set in stone. People associated it with outdated technology and legacy systems that refused to die.
In 2015, Microsoft launched Edge with Windows 10, trying to start fresh. It didn’t work. By December 2018, Microsoft admitted defeat and rebuilt Edge using Chromium, the same code that powers Chrome.
Microsoft had given up on their own browser technology entirely.
The End
On 15 June 2022, Microsoft officially retired Internet Explorer 11. The announcement had come a year earlier, giving people time to switch to Edge.
The retirement became a moment. #RIPInternetExplorer trended on Twitter. People shared nostalgic memories of dial-up internet and that blue “e” icon. Others celebrated finally being free of it.
The jokes captured how far Internet Explorer had fallen. From essential tool to punchline. From market leader to meme.
Microsoft Edge still includes “Internet Explorer mode” for old business websites that only work in IE. Microsoft promises to support that mode until at least 2029. But Internet Explorer as a product, as a cultural force, is finished.
What It Means
The Internet Explorer story teaches one clear lesson: dominance without innovation leads to decline.
Microsoft achieved a 95 percent monopoly through aggressive bundling. But once they won, they stopped improving. Internet Explorer 6 sat unchanged for five years whilst the web evolved around it. Security holes stayed open. Features went unbuilt. Standards got ignored.
Why Complacency Kills
When you have no competition, you have no reason to innovate. Why spend money improving something when customers can’t switch anyway?
That complacency creates space for competitors. Firefox appeared because developers needed something better. Chrome succeeded because users wanted something faster. Internet Explorer’s stagnation created the conditions for its own replacement.
The tech industry moves fast. Standing still means falling behind. Internet Explorer stood still for five years at the height of its power. That decision killed it.
The Lesson Learnt
Google learnt from the Internet Explorer story. Chrome now holds 66 percent of the browser market. But Google releases new versions every few weeks, adding features and fixing security issues. They remember what happens when innovation stops.
Microsoft Edge, rebuilt on Chromium, now has over 5 percent market share and grows steadily. Microsoft finally learnt the lesson their own product taught them.
Internet Explorer dominated the web for a decade and became a meme for another. The browser that introduced millions to the internet ended its life as the punchline to jokes about downloading better browsers.
In tech, you either evolve or you die. Internet Explorer just stood still whilst the world moved on.
Sources
- The Washington Post. “Internet Explorer has been ‘retired’ by Microsoft, ushering in the end of an era.”
- Wikipedia. “History of Internet Explorer.”
- CNN Business. “Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer as No. 1 browser.”
