The Members Forum

Software giant Microsoft’s internet explorer turned 15 years on Monday. The company recently said it would launch the internet explorer 9 public beta version on September 15, 2010.

Microsoft would launch the new version at a special event in San Francisco and confirmed the browser would only function with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

In July 2010, Internet Explorer has a combined market share of 60.74 percent and Firefox is at 22.91 percent, followed by Google's Chrome with 7.16 percent, Safari with 5.09 percent, and Opera with 2.45 percent, according to the latest data from Net Applications.

The software giant launched the first version of the browser internet explorer 1 on August 16, 1995. It was a revised version of Spyglass Mosaic, which Microsoft had licensed from Spyglass Inc. The first version came with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 and the original equipment manufacturer release of Windows 95.

Internet explorer 2 was released for Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5, and NT 4.0 on November 22, 1995 (following a 2.0 beta in October). Internet explorer 3 was released on August 13, 1996.

Microsoft internet explorer 4, released in September 1997, deepened the level of integration between the web browser and the underlying operating system. The traditional Windows Explorer was replaced by version 4, when installed.

Internet explorer 5 was launched on March 18, 1999. Also, with the release of internet explorer 5, Microsoft released the first version of XMLHttpRequest, giving birth to Ajax. Internet explorer 6 was released on August 27, 2001, a few months before Windows XP. Internet explorer 7 was released on October 18, 2006.

“The company's Windows 7 should benefit from the corporate PC refresh cycle, which is in its early stages and the release of Windows Service Pack 1 (SP1) in the first half of calendar year 2011. The much-awaited corporate PC refresh cycle is underway and should drive Windows 7 sales for at least the next year,” said David Hilal, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.

Internet Explorer 8 "Final" was released on March 19, 2009. On March 5, 2008, the first public beta (Beta 1) was released to the general public. The second public beta (Beta 2) was released on August 27, 2008. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RC1 was released on January 26, 2009.

IBTimes has the details HERE!