An Overview of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer (IE) is the most common web browser in use today. As web browser is software that we need in order to surf through the pages on the web. This is a graphical web browser which is very user friendly.

The history of internet explorer dates back to August 16, 1995 which is when the first version of internet explorer, Internet Explorer I, was released as a part of the Windows 95 operating system. This version of Internet Explorer was designed only for the users of Microsoft Windows. This version of internet explorer was followed by Internet Explorer 2 which was released in the same year in November. This version of the browser support both Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The next major version of IE to come into the market was Internet Explorer 3. This had many new features as compared to the previous releases.

Internet Explorer 3 came up with some interesting benefits for the end user which included Netmeeting and Windows Address Book. This version of internet explorer also supported Active X controls and Java applets which raised its popularity. However, the drawback was that this version did not provide security and privacy. Hackers could easily hack into the system. The next version of IE, Internet Explorer 4 came up many more user friendly features like Outlook Express and Microsoft Chat. The next version, Internet Explorer 5 was the last version which supported Macintosh and Unix Operating Systems. The security and privacy concerns of this browser were finally addressed in Internet Explorer 6.

Internet Explorer 7 is currently the most common internet browser. By using internet explorer 7, you can view multiple website in a single window, since this browser supports tabbed browsing. Another feature of this browser is the instant search box. The search box is now provided in the toolbar itself in order to avoid cluttering the space with multiple search boxes. Internet Explorer 7 also introduced the page zooming feature which was until then, a feature used in Microsoft Word and Excel. By introducing the page zooming feature, customer could vary the screen size based on their viewing comfort.

The security advancement incorporated in this version of internet explorer was the phishing filter. Phishing is a process of hacking into a computer system and getting all the confidential data like passwords, credit cards details and social security number. The phishing filter offers protection against websites that are considered potentially dangerous. Another security enhancement is the ActiveX opt-in feature. This feature disables all the ActiveX controls on the websites you visit in order to prevent your system to be exposed to any virus attack. Using the Add-on Manager, you can easily either enable or disable this feature.

The most recent release of Internet Explorer browser is Internet Explorer 8. This version was launched in the market this year on March 19^th. This we browser is supported by Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. A very interesting feature that has been incorporated in this version of the browser is the "Inprivate Browsing" feature. By enabling this feature, you can prevent your browser from retaining data about the websites you visited. Now, this is a feature that can come as boon to many!!!

Through this journey of internet explorer, the team that works on this in Microsoft also grew. When Internet Explorer 1 was launched, only 6 people were on that team and now, that team has now grown to accommodate hundreds. As the journey of Internet Explorer progresses many more interesting features will get added and many will become redundant. However, the popularity of this browser does not seem to show any downward trend.