Published on Jun 16, 2022
A 26-year-old brand with baggage including a legal case, security vulnerabilities, and lagging performance has ended its support on Wednesday. Instead, users will be directed to Microsoft’s newer Edge browser.
Although Microsoft does not generate revenue directly from browsers, Edge uses the Bing search engine to generate advertising revenue. Microsoft generated nearly $3 billion in revenue from that category in the first quarter, representing about 6% of its overall revenue.
Microsoft won’t provide technical support or security updates to customers since it prefers to focus on Edge, a browser available on mobile devices, Macs, and even Linux, rather than just Windows. As part of Windows 10, Microsoft included Edge alongside Internet Explorer as something new and efficient, but similar to what Windows users already knew.
Even so, Internet Explorer still has a few devotees, partly because it’s the only way to access certain corporate web applications. Although it’s being retired, it won’t disappear just yet.
