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| Internet Explorer is still very much in Japanese companies |
Microsoft has shut down its Internet Explorer web browser, causing panic among many companies and government agencies in Japan who waited until the last minute to update their websites.
Since April, software developer Computer Engineering & Consulting has been receiving requests for help from customers, mostly government agencies, financial institutions, manufacturers, and logistics companies, who operate only Internet Explorer-compatible websites.
"They have known for a long time that it is being mined," a CEC official said, predicting that the chaos among the rigs would continue for several months. But they delayed the event until the last minute.
After 27 years of service, Microsoft has officially ended support for Internet Explorer. Many users switch to Google Chrome.
A survey in March by IT resource provider Keyman's Net showed that a large number of organizations in Japan rely on Internet Explorer, with 49% of respondents saying they use the browser for work.
They say the browser is used for employee attendance management, cost reconciliation, and other internal tools. In some cases, they have no choice but to use Internet Explorer due to the client system used to process the request.
More than 20% of respondents do not know or cannot figure out how to switch to another browser after Internet Explorer has stopped.
Microsoft has discontinued support for Internet Explorer
Government agencies also reacted hesitantly. The Government Procurement and Bid Information Portal lists Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome as recommended browsers.
But for JPS, notifications for online applications should appear in IE mode in Microsoft Edge browser.
The government-backed private school collaboration website still lists Internet Explorer as the only recommended browser.
Computer advertising agencies are urging Internet Explorer users to switch to other browsers and view the content immediately.
The browser was launched in 1995, became the global standard after defeating Netscape in the browser wars, and gained 65% of the market share in January 2009.
But its share began declining steadily in the late 2000s, recently dropping below 1%, according to web analytics firm StatCounter.
One of the reasons for this rejection is that browsers do not comply with international web technology standards. It does not work well with JavaScript and other programming languages needed to build interactive websites, said Yuta Igusa, director of information security at IT service provider Sakura Internet.
The shutdown of IE coincided with the rapid rise of Google Chrome. Google launched the browser in 2008 based on the Google open source project.
Google Chrome has attracted users with applications such as Maps and Email that run on the web. It dominates the market with a 65% share.
Google Chrome is fast, said AI developer ExaWizards. Its frequent updates mean that bugs and errors can be fixed quickly.