Internet Explorer from Microsoft deserved to die. Or at least put him out of his misery. The 27-year-old browser has long been bogged down by performance and security issues, and Microsoft has completely switched to its Edge browser. (While almost everyone else has switched to Google Chrome.)
Microsoft officially killed beleaguered IE last year, though its ghostly presence still lingers on Windows PCs around the world. In an effort to clean up the remains, Microsoft has now started delete automatically copies of Internet Explorer from users’ computers. A software update for the Edge browser rolled out this week will permanently disable Internet Explorer 11 on any Windows machine that still has it installed.
In some ways, it’s a fitting ending. Microsoft had a habit of forcing Internet Explorer into almost everything, to the point where the practice led to a federal antitrust lawsuit against the company in 1998. Going in and forcibly removing the software feels like a typical presumptuous end of the cycle.
Of course, all things are just made of stardust, and the fragmented remnants of Internet Explorer will continue in one form or another. Visual elements of the browser, such as the icons and shortcuts, will remain on desktops until a Windows update later this year zaps those as well, and Microsoft says it will support some basic compatibility features with Internet Explorer within the Edge browser until 2029.
Here’s some other tech news.
Instagram channels
Instagram is getting a new broadcast feature called Channels that will allow individual accounts to send messages directly to followers who sign up for it. Instagram parent company Meta announced the feature (itself a clone of a similar feature in Telegram) this week, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg showing off the first instance of it.
Channels work like a one-way group chat. One account posts the content, whether that’s a photo, video, or text message, and followers can respond with emoji reactions or answer polls. The feature is currently being tested, and only a few users can experiment with it. Channels are also available through Facebook messengeragain in limited early testing.
Minecrocs
Where is your God now? Minecraft themed Crocs are real.
“Craft as you are in full Crocs Comfort,” the chaotic collaboration shouts commercial copy.
Also announced on Microsoft’s official website, the famous fashion-adjacent shoe brand has partnered with the voxel crafting game to produce four pairs of shoes, from elevated clogs to simple slides. The comfortable kicks feature Minecraft’s signature green and brown color palette and come with detachable charms in the shape of classic Minecraft characters such as ‘Steve’ and ‘pig’. They are both real and available to purchase.
Get talkative
If you’ve spent more than a second on the internet this week, you’ve noticed that the chatbots are everywhere. They generate endless art and conversation and inspirational conferences filled with marketing evangelism and creepy freestyle raps about AI. Chatbots can now even help with online searches and occasionally succumb existential panic attacks in the process. (They’re just like us!)
Microsoft has revitalized its floundering Bing search engine by deploying a generative AI bot to guide people through search. Not to be outdone, Google hastened to announce its own search bot called Bard. It’s the biggest rivalry yet in the increasingly competitive AI ecosystem.
