Microsoft, the founders of Internet Explorer, has announced that Internet Explorer will disappear from the internet on the 17th of August 2021.
Internet Explorer used to be THE browser to use but over the years has been overtaken by more popular browsers such as Chrome and Safari. Indeed even Microsoft themselves created a new browser, Edge, five years ago instead of bringing Internet Explorer back to life.
Whilst Microsoft has made it clear that the browser will disappear in August next year they have stated that they will no longer support the latest version of the browser from the 30th of September 2020. Not long left now.
What does this mean for you and your business?
For regular users of Internet Explorer, they will need to find a different browser to use. If they have bookmarks saved within their Internet Explorer browser then they would be wise to transfer any bookmarks to their new browser so that they don’t lose them.
Should individuals wait until next August, or change browser now? We recommend that they change sooner rather than later. If the browser is no longer supported then you may find that the user experience when visiting websites on Internet Explorer decreases. There is also a higher risk of security flaws within any unsupported system.
For businesses, it means that you have one less browser to test your website on. Yippee.
It also means that if you have a website that was specifically built by a website developer for Internet Explorer then you would be best off having the website reviewed to ensure that the website experience is good on other browsers such as Chrome, Edge or Safari.
Microsoft has stated that they will honour investments made by business owners in Internet Explorer and will allow all private programs running with Internet Explorer to continue as planned.
So after 25 years, we say Goodbye to Internet Explorer. Goodbye.
Published: 8th Sep 2020