Windows Internet Explorer (formerly
Microsoft Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated
IE or
MSIE) is a series of
graphical web browsers developed by
Microsoft and included as part of the
Microsoft Windows line of
operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package
Plus! for Windows 95 that year. Later versions were available as free downloads, or in
service packs, and included in the
OEM service releases of Windows 95 and later versions of Windows.
Internet Explorer has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, attaining a peak of about 95%
usage share during 2002 and 2003 with
Internet Explorer 5 and
Internet Explorer 6.
[citation needed] Since its peak of popularity, its usage share has been declining in the face of renewed competition from other web browsers, and
is currently 40.9% as of June 2011
[update]. It had been slightly higher,
43.55% as of February 2011, just prior to the release of the current version. Microsoft spent over $100 million USD per year on Internet Explorer in the late 1990s,
[1] with over 1000 people working on it by 1999.
[2]
Since its first release, Microsoft has added features and technologies such as basic
table display (in
version 1.5);
XMLHttpRequest (in
version 5), which aids creation of
dynamic web pages; and
Internationalized Domain Names (in
version 7), which allow Web sites to have native-language addresses with non-
Latin characters. The browser has also received scrutiny throughout its development for use of third-party technology (such as the
source code of
Spyglass Mosaic, used without royalty in early versions) and security and privacy
vulnerabilities, and both
the United States and
the European Union have alleged that integration of Internet Explorer with Windows has been to the detriment of other browsers.
The latest stable release is
Internet Explorer 9, which is available as a free update for
Windows 7,
Windows Vista SP2,
Windows Server 2008, and
Windows Server 2008 R2. Internet Explorer was to be omitted from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in Europe, but Microsoft ultimately included it, with a browser option screen allowing users to select any of several web browsers (including Internet Explorer).
[3][4][5][6]
Versions of Internet Explorer for other operating systems have also been produced, including an embedded OEM version called Pocket Internet Explorer, later rebranded
Internet Explorer Mobile, which is currently based on Internet Explorer 7 and made for
Windows Phone 7,
Windows CE, and previously
Windows Mobile. It remains in development alongside the more advanced desktop versions.
Internet Explorer for Mac and
Internet Explorer for UNIX (
Solaris and
HP-UX) have been discontinued.
Source : www.wikipedia.com
