Adok's Tumblelog

Microsoft’s web browser Internet Explorer was launched 15 years ago. While it had its ups and downs over the years – version 6 was plagued by countless security issues, which made it one of the most hated browsers around – it’s still the most popular browser in the world, with the last couple of versions improving dramatically on their troubled predecessor.

Based on Mosaic, a web browser Microsoft had licensed from a company called Spyglass Inc. the first version of the browser, Internet Explorer 1, making its first appearance on August 16, 1995. Starting with version 3.0, Microsoft started bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, increasing its market share dramatically and ultimately squeezing once dominant browser Netscape Navigator out of the market completely.

By 2004 the IE’s popularity started to fade with the introduction of Mozilla Firefox.The then IE6 was in no competition to the firefox which was an open source and free browser. after a coulpe of years Microsoft finally brought out IE7 with improved better features.

According to the latest data from Net Applications, Internet Explorer now has a combined market share of 60.74% and Firefox is at 23.75%, followed by Chrome, Safari, Opera and others.

MS is now currently planning to launch IE9.With its beta version coming out on sept 15th.With a lots of competition lets wait and see what the engineers at Microsoft have managed to get us through IE9.