Data Source: StatCounter

Tool: Tableau

Internet Explorer was released on August 16, 1995. After nearly three decades of being the default web browser for Microsoft's Windows operating system, Internet Explorer was finally retired on February 14, 2023. The end of Internet Explorer was not unexpected, as Microsoft had been phasing it out in favor of their newer browser, Microsoft Edge, for several years. The decision to retire Internet Explorer was made in part due to its outdated technology and lack of support for modern web standards. Additionally, since the launch of Google Chrome in 2008, Internet Explorer’s popularity steadily declined. As of last week, Microsoft no longer provides technical support, security updates, or bug fixes for Internet Explorer on any devices. Microsoft Edge has pushed out an update to permanently disable Internet Explorer 11.

Microsoft has high hopes for Edge to compete with Google Chrome and other browsers, especially after their recent investment in the OpenAI chatbot, ChatGPT.

>As of last week, Microsoft no longer provides technical support, security updates, or bug fixes for Internet Explorer on any devices. Microsoft Edge has pushed out an update to permanently disable Internet Explorer 11.

Honestly, I though they'd done this like 2 years ago.

Either way, I won't use Edge or IE, so it's a mute point.

Weird to gray out chrome when it basically took IEs place

Wanted to bring attention to IE/Edge. However, I can see how it can be odd to grey out Chrome.

I find it funny that Edge only beat IE in 2019

I wonder where Firefox fits on this graph

Here.

Market share has gone down, although number of users hasn't declined that much.

We used to say that Microsoft will come to regret the bad will turning their browser into a fucking hellhole, and i think it's safe to say they have. I reckon they've spent more on Edge and corrective actions than they made by trying to turn ie into their bullshit corporate walled garden.

Now comes Google's reckoning. I hope they're happy with how much money they made during their time in the sun, because once they're dethroned, they're not coming back for decades, if ever.

What are these "other" browsers that seem to have so much market share?

A plethora of Chinese phone brand-specific and chromium-based (like Brave and Vivaldi), I'd assume.

That's because the first iteration was shit. It wasn't rebuilt as Chromium based until 2018 so it definitely makes sense.

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Edge is a great browser and Chrome isn't going away anytime soon

It's a great browser almost nobody uses on purpose, and while Chrome isn't going anywhere, Google's fall from grace is impending. Hope they enjoyed their decades in the sun.

Why do you think Google Will fall?

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I will never forgive MSFT for murdering the greatest browser of all time, Netscape, and forcing people to use their own browser Internet Exploder. Die IE, die!

I'm starting to find Edge far better than chrome and less resource heavy.

Buuuut, Chrome now has all my integrations with GDrive, Gmail, YouTube, and my Android phone. MS's suite is still a nightmare.

I like edge. Just for a bit of diversity since I use chrome at work and for school. A "different" place where I can relax

This graph is violence against Mozilla firefox

That’s the real reason I think Chrome is still around. It’s too important in connecting everything I use all the time, edge just becomes another hoop to jump through

>almost nobody uses on purpose

That's a big assertion.

Quick google reports (well) under 6% of users use Edge, which is absolutely laughable for what's the default browser on more than 50% of users' OSs.

Good =/= popular, and bad =/= unpopular. Edge is good despite being utterly unpopular. And i think it's unpopular because M$ made short-term decisions with ie which burned their image. That's the point of my original comment. It's now taken them Billions to get Edge to this point, and this point is still laughably bad. Look forward to the exact same thing happening with Google the moment a viable alternative surfaces.

To reiterate - i hope they all enjoyed their respective moments in the sun, because they traded away decades of unpopularity for them.

I thought you meant chrome

Is this based on how many computers has IE installed, or is it based on how much internet data was actually served to IE vs other browsers?

When I made websites in the early 00s I remember very few users actually using IE even though most people had IE installed on their computers. My websites were pretty low traffic non-profit sites. Maybe traffic was different on major sites like Amazon?

Oof, my bad. Yeah, i didn't realize it came across that way. I meant that i recognize that Edge is a great browser, as you say, but that hasn't translated into popularity, due to what i think is the bad aftertaste from ie.

As a web dev back in the day when we had to employ a ton of hacks to work with IE, especially 6 and 7, this data truly is beautiful!

Check that meteoric rise of Edge. ZOOOOOOM

People still use GDrive? I can rarely upload anything to it on any device. And when it does upload it's extremely slow.

Working in IT (Medical Field), this has been horrible for us lately. So many states and web apps "only support IE" and are so archaic. We upgraded mostly everyone to Windows 11 already which causes so many headaches since IE isn't included.

You didn't think the release of Firefox was significant enough for it's own line? I think that's a very strange choice, the impact was huge

I'm the opposite. My work uses Edge, so I use Chrome for personal stuff. It's surprising how much different the two can feel if I just use them in different settings.

At the company I'm working at, we have 112 apps that only work on IE. When MS announced it would discontinue IE, there was some panic and a bunch of people needed to start porting stuff over. But Edge has IE mode until 2030, so this is a 2029 problem now.

Market share, so presumably profits rather than users

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Cause they lost almost all their goodwill. People are looking for a viable alternative. The moment one presents, their search domination is going bye bye.

Edge is better than google in my opinion

That's probably when they started forcing usage too on all new windows installs. And even with that, 90% of the time edge is opened so you can download Chrome, Brave, or Firefox.