Internet Explorer

(World-Wide Web)(IE, MSIE) Microsoft's free World-Wide Web browser for Microsoft Windows, Windows 95, Windows NT, and Macintosh. Internet Explorer is the main rival toNetscape Navigator (which runs on many more platforms).Both support the same core features and offer incompatibleextensions.

Microsoft combined later versions of IE with their file system browser, "Explorer" and bundled it with Windows 95in an attempt to use their dominance of the desktopoperating system market to force users to abandon Netscape'sbrowser, which they perceived as a potential threat. This,and other dubious business moves, became the subject of a USDepartment of Justice antitrust trial in late 1998/early 1999.

http://microsoft.com/ie/.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft's Web browser, which has been included with Windows since Windows 98. Commonly called "IE," versions for Mac and Unix were available for a number of years but then discontinued. IE is the most widely used Web browser on desktop computers.

The Browser War History
In the mid-1990s, Netscape's Navigator browser, which was paid software, became the de facto on-ramp to the Web. Recognizing the Internet's potential, Microsoft quickly developed IE for Windows and gave it away. As a result, Netscape was forced to make Navigator free, and both browsers vied for top place, each new version one-upping the other with new features. Since it came with every Windows PC, IE eventually trumped Netscape. Although still the dominant Web browser on the desktop, over the years, competing browsers have captured a large share of the market. See Web browser and World Wide Web.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer