???? – 2022retired
Alexa Internet
“It ranked the whole web so the rest of us could know where we stood.”
“It opened the internet for millions, then politely asked if Edge could take it from here.”
Internet Explorer was Microsoft's graphical web browser, first released in 1995 as part of the Plus! add-on package for Windows 95, and soon bundled into Windows itself. At its height, Microsoft was pouring over $100 million a year into it, with more than 1,000 people on the project by 1999. For a generation, it simply was the internet — the blue 'e' on the desktop that got you online.
In 2015, Microsoft Edge was released to succeed Internet Explorer 11, and new feature development stopped the year after. Official support ended on June 15, 2022, for Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel editions, though it lingers on in certain corners like Windows 10 LTSB/LTSC. A quiet retirement for a browser that once defined the web for so many.
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“It ranked the whole web so the rest of us could know where we stood.”
“The budget flagship that made everyone else's phone feel overpriced.”
“The last notch-holding Pro — small cutout, big camera, perfect exit.”