Twenty-seven years is how long Microsoft Internet Explorer was alive before it got the death pill on June 15, 2022. It was one of the best internet browsers the world has ever seen.
While one would think the world would be happy to go ahead and use other browsers, apparently this is not the case! You can blame the human tendency not to let go of old habits so easily for this.
Our friends from Japan and South Korea, for example, are now sitting in front of their computers with sweaty palms as they relied heavily on the vintage browser.
Trouble in Japan!
In the land of the rising sun, the browser was being used by many companies for important tasks, including the settlement of expenses.
Even notices from the Japan Pension Service about online applications require users to use Edge in Internet Explorer mode. Some government-backed corporations also follow suit.
What about South Korea then?
Now, we come to South Korea, where you need to use Internet Explorer, or a similar replacement, for example to register your day care on the Ministry of Health and Welfare website.
It gets weirder because if you are a corporate customer of one of the biggest foreign banks in South Korea, you can make online business payments through Internet Explorer and not Google Chrome! There are more examples like this.
The matter seems rather funny when you realize that Microsoft has announced that it will be phasing out Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 in August 2020.
Almost 2 years later and the world, or rather some parts of it, hasn’t moved on. Of course, this would be forgotten if Japan and South Korea were not among the countries struggling to cope with change.