Today is a special day for Microsoft, as it turns out that its Internet Explorer browser, currently the most used browser in the world, has turned 15 years old. Yup, you’ve heard it right; Internet Explorer has been around for 15 years. Throughout those years it had its problems as well as its advantages.
In the summer of 1995 Microsoft released Windows 95, which wasn’t very spectacular or the first operating system we’ve seen from the Redmond based company. What was interesting, however, was the introduction of Internet Explorer 1.0 which changed the way people accessed the Internet. While Netscape was already on the market, first off, people required some options to surf the Internet and secondly Netscape was somewhat controlled by online providers. Internet Explorer 1, launched on August 16 was based on Mosaic, a web browser that Microsoft had licensed from a company called Spyglass Inc. Microsoft started to offer Internet Explorer 3.0 bundled with its Windows operating system. This probably contributed a lot to the future popularity of the browser. Instead of scouting for web browsing software, users would just find the web browser there, pre-installed, as soon as they’d finished installing Windows. Soon after, Internet Explorer managed to increase so much in market share, that it completely eliminated Netscape Navigator from the market.
But just as Internet Explorer became popular because it represented a viable alternative to Netscape, Microsoft’s browser started to become less popular as soon as Firefox, Mozilla’s free open source browser was launched in 2004. Internet Explorer 6.0 was definitely one of the most memorable versions of the web browser simply because it included a huge number of security issues. Firefox was launched in that period, when people were complaining about the security of Internet Explorer 6.0. For several years, Firefox gained market share like crazy while Internet Explorer simply couldn’t keep up with the higher speeds and improved security that Mozilla’s browser offered.
Eventually, Microsoft started working on its web browser again and released version 7.0 which brought significant improvements as far as security and stability goes. Internet Explorer 8 was also a major improvement and managed to secure a decent market share and keep its leadership on the market. According to a recent survey conducted by Net Applications, Internet Explorer is still in the lead with 60.74 percent of the market, with Mozilla following with its 23.75 percent. In the meantime other companies have also released web browsers. Users now have a choice between Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Maxton or Google’s Chrome, but the two main players are still Firefox and Microsoft’s popular browser. As soon as Microsoft is done with the release of Internet Explorer 9, things are bound to get better. Internet Explorer 9 beta should be launched this September, as a part of an event called ‘Beauty of the Web’. The latest version of the browser will bring significant improvements including HTML5 support, a new JavaScript Engine (codenamed Chakra) as well as Direct X video acceleration.
