Goodbye, Internet Explorer: Mumbaikars get nostalgic about the browser that gave them ‘entry into a whole new world’

"Internet Explorer was one of our earliest portals to this wondrous new digital reality," says Powai-based Sahil Vaidya, on learning about American tech giant Microsoft retiring Internet Explorer, which breathed its last on June 15. Vaidya remembers getting access to the browser as a 7-8-year-old and since the Internet had just started reaching people around the world, Internet Explorer was the only browser at the time for everybody. "I fondly remember being excited about accessing Cartoon Network's website and all the possibilities of playing games on the Internet," adds the 28-year-old.

Remember the time when most of us waited for the dial-up connection to beep and connect us to the ‘Internet', an alien concept at the time? Once we were on it, Internet Explorer or IE as it is more commonly known, was the only and now much-loved browser to access it. Easily recognisable with the gold ring around a cursive ‘E' to represent Internet Explorer, it managed to transport us into a whole new world. Most may remember that this was at a time when affording a Personal Computer or PC was still a luxury for many.

So, people had to save up enough money to visit the cybercafé to access the Internet, play games, and chat with other people. Little did we know, it was just getting started leading to the world we are in today.

Almost 27 years after it was first introduced, Microsoft decided to pull the plug on Internet Explorer, the browser that literally served as the first medium for people to access the Internet. Now, users will be directed to Microsoft Edge, the company's new age browser, which actually also has an ‘IE mode'. Mid-day Online spoke to four Mumbaikars including Vaidya, who got nostalgic about the browser in its heyday and tell us how they see the future without it.

First access to the digital world
While it was his first medium to the Cartoon Network website for Vaidya, who today is the co-founder of The Minimalist, a city-based advertising agency, it aided Abhishek Gharat to enter into the gaming world. It is a habit he continues to have even today, when he isn't occupied working. "Being a 90s kid, I downloaded my first game called ‘Wolfenstein 3D' with Internet Explorer," reminisces Vasai-based Gharat. "The first computer in our home was a used Pentium II machine in 2001, one that my cousin Amit gave us. We couldn't afford one back then. The Internet connection came through the same telephone line a year later through the local BSNL telephone exchange in Vasai," he adds.

After waiting for half a minute, the 28-year-old says he and his elder brother would get access to a 56 kbps Internet and use Internet Explorer. As soon as this happened, they would hope that nobody would call the landline number, as that would cut their time on the browser, where they had only just begun their journey.

Games and music
It was no different for Akshay Gurnani, who also got introduced to the browser around the same time as many of us today - late 90s and early 2000s.

It helped him graduate from regular computer games like Minesweeper, Solitaire and 3D Pinball. "It actually gave me an entry into the whole new world of the Internet. I clearly remember the time when we as kids would sit around the internet router box, waiting for the dial tone to start and then for the blinking yellow lights to come on and then Internet Explorer was the only option," says Gurnani, CEO of city-based marketing agency, Schbang.

While the browser gave him his early access to games, it also gave him music, a luxury we can afford today without a hitch but was a cherished activity then. "My favorite memory of using Internet Explorer was getting access to Napster as a website to download songs. Even though the entire experience was really slow and frustrating, it was okay because to be honest, we didn't know better," he adds.

Ask Vidisha Debsarkar, another Mumbaikar about her favourite memory and the Kanjurmarg resident immediately says the fact that Internet Explorer was a primary part of her childhood and teenage days in itself is memorable for her. Like Gurnani and Gharat, Debsarkar also used the browser to play the early games and for her class assignments. It was only in the latter part of the 2000s that she actually moved to Mozilla Firefox and eventually Google Chrome for her work because of better browsing speed.

The future is edgy
While the 35-year-old marketing professional has had many mixed memories with the browser, she is excited for the future because of Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, the new version of the original browser. In fact, Gharat, who is a tech nerd and runs KraftPixel, a Vasai-based web development company, says people would be surprised how many companies actually still use the browser because some of their functions only work on Internet Explorer. So much so that Microsoft has even built something called the ‘IE mode' in Edge. "It is nice that Edge is here," says Gharat, poetically adding, "As we all bid adieu to her grandfather today, it will still be sad to tell Internet Explorer that it can't be my default browser, one last time."

As for Gurnani, who moved to Google Chrome in 2008, the shutting down won't make a big difference like many others. "I will always be grateful to Microsoft for giving me my earliest memories of the Internet. It taught me patience and got me to slow down and enjoy the journey while the page loaded," he smiles.

Will live on through memes?
Even as Internet Explorer has retired, it leaves behind a legacy that has been immortalised in the form of memes in the last few years, which poke fun at its many elements. We can count ourselves lucky because even though these memes poke fun at the old browser, it is going to be one of our only memories of the good old days. Ask Gurnani about his reaction to the memes, and he says, "The memes are quite honestly funny and relatable. It's sad that Microsoft wasn't able to innovate fast enough and sustain the market share they once had, but it's a classic case of "perform or perish."

However, Vaidya looks at it differently. "Like all old ideas that once sparked a revolution, I think the creators deserve a lot of respect. At the same time, we have to keep making room for rapid advancements. I won't be surprised if the same meme-treatment is meted out to any of our current browsers some decades down the line, when they're too clunky or irrelevant for our new hyperconnected reality and get shut," he adds.

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