There was a time when Microsoft and Internet Explorer ruled the internet world. They had it made in the shade, as we used to say. If you used the internet, you quite simply did so using Internet Explorer. In terms of technology, that was a long time ago. Or it was, as Microsoft might view it, the good old days.

It is getting more and more difficult to find fans of IE. That has begun to accelerate when two very large and powerful entities turned against the browser. Those entities are Google and the United States Government. The Department of Health and Google have both begun to migrate away from the most recent upgrade to Internet Explorer, IE6.

In the case of Google, that is a big blow to Microsoft because that means many very popular Google services like Google Docs, Google’s web development tools and the Google version of online video networking that competes with YouTube will no longer be tuned to work with IE6. That will result in a mass migration away from the browser that will only accelerate the slow death of Internet Explorer that has been ongoing for the last decade.

There has been plenty of competition for what Internet Explorer has to offer. Firefox has steadily gained control of more and more internet sessions in the last few years. Now Google is also pushing their own online access tool called Chrome. The primary shortcomings that have plaque Internet Explorer for some time are security openings that hackers have had a field day with and poor performance. Microsoft has simply not been able to compete with faster and more secure browsers.

Now even Microsoft is asking users to skip over IE6 and jump to IE8. But the confidence in the product has been so seriously compromised that they may be singing that old song about the Internet Explorer that goes, "Turn out the lights. The Party’s over."