Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer 11 back in 2013, alongside the Windows 8.1 release and even after that, it was made available for Windows 7 too. IE11 is the last ever version of the browser, as it was replaced by the now Chromium based Microsoft Edge in 2015, as part of Windows 10.
However, while 2013 doesn’t seem that long ago, it is actually nine years and keeping certain websites and apps updated can be a lot of work, so Google has now chosen to stop supporting IE11 for the main Google Search. According to @cramforce on Twitter the company “did the math” and it was better to stop supporting the old browser.
As a web developer this is one of the happiest announcements in a while: Google Search ended support for IE11 in its main product 🎉 (you can still search but will get a fallback experience). I'm mostly posting this so you can send it to your boss 😛. We did the Math. It is time.
— Malte Ubl (@cramforce) October 1, 2021
However, for those users still stuck using IE11, Google has instead given them a fallback experience, which doesn’t have as many features but still works. For those on the fallback experience, a pop up to install Chrome.
