Goodbye, Internet Explorer: Microsoft retires browser after 27 years
FILE - In this photo illustration an Internet Explorer (IE or MSIE) logo is seen on a smartphone with a Microsoft logo in the background. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Microsoft is saying goodbye to Internet Explorer after more than 25 years.
The tech giant announced in May it will discontinue the browser beginning June 15, 2022, and encouraged users to switch to Microsoft Edge.
"Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications," the company said.
Microsoft had begun to slowly phase out Internet Explorer in 2015 when the company’s marketing chief, Chris Capossela, announced that the company was working on a new brand and name, which would later evolve into Microsoft Edge, according to The Verge.
From 1995 to now
Bill Gates and Paul Allen would found Microsoft in 1975 out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
From there, the pair would relocate to Washington State and in 1986, Microsoft went public, selling for about $21 a share. That price quickly rose to $35.50 a share and by the end of the day, about 2.5 million shares were sold.
Gates, then 30, "sold $1.6 million in shares and retained a 45 percent stake worth $350 million. Microsoft stock climbed more than a hundredfold between 1986 and 1996," according to Microsoft.
And just one year after going public, Gates became the youngest billionaire in 1987.
In 1995, the company debuted Windows 95 which would include innovations such as the start menu and Microsoft’s first web browser, Internet Explorer.
At its peak in the early 2000s, Internet Explorer controlled 95% of the web browsing market, according to the BBC.
But after failing to keep up with the pace of competitors such as Google Chrome, which now holds 64% of the global browser market, Internet Explorer became "the browser you love to hate."
Microsoft’s browser will join other retired services such as the company’s Hotmail and its famous desktop assistant, Clippy, the annoyingly but loveable paperclip.
This story was reported out of Los Angeles.