Long before Instagram and TikTok dominated the net, Internet Explorer was at the peak of its success. The online browser marks a moment in early internet history when Microsoft dominated the tech world; a portal into the web at a time when dial-in was the norm and Blackberrys were the phone du jour.

Now, the much-maligned online browser, is dead after 27 years. Microsoft is officially telling users to move on and switch to its newer Edge browser instead.

Microsoft released the first version of Internet Explorer in 1995. Its launch was the beginning of the end of Navigator, the tech giant’s previous browser. But the search engine was notoriously slow, prone to crashing and bugs. It was eventually replaced by more reliable engines such as Firefox. 

These days, Chrome dominates internet search engines with roughly a 65 per cent share of the global browser market. It’s followed by Apple’s Safari at 19 per cent.

RIP to a real one.