Type and hit ENTER

  • Home
  • Articles
  • About
  • The Book
  • Media
  • Speaking
  • Subscribe Free
  • Advisory
  • Contact
GET CONNECTED

 

"Witty, clever and extremely relevant in these godforsaken Zoom times." Zoë Foster Blake

Book on sale now from Penguin Random House.

  • Home
  • Articles
  • About
  • The Book
  • Media
  • Speaking
  • Subscribe Free
  • Advisory
  • Contact
Farewell To The Nickelback Of Web Browsers
Share
Articles

Farewell To The Nickelback Of Web Browsers

October 12, 2020
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth
https://ianwhitworth.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IE.mp3

Audio version or listen on Spotify


RIP Internet Explorer, Old Friend

 

A moment’s silence for the passing at age 25 of Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s unloved web browser.

 

RIP Internet Explorer

 

Only Clippy, their relentless animated MS Office help assistant, sucked more. Yet now the thought of Internet Explorer takes you back to a golden, simpler time with your friends Tom from MySpace, Keyboard Cat and the Fail Whale.

 

 

Hi, it looks like you’re trying to read Ian’s story, can I interrupt?

 

It was an era when you’d go on the web for an hour or two as a focused fun time. Rather than it controlling your every thought and movement, from your morning alarm to your final needy scan through your socials in bed.

What a time for Microsoft, when they basically owned your personal computer and controlled that whole experience. Vast global currents of cash flowed their way.

That swagger was fully on show in this can’t-be-unseen video of Bill Gates, then-CEO Steve Ballmer and others on stage at the Windows 95 launch.

 

 

In reflection, that could have been the specific moment when the wheels started to fall off the 100%-white, straight men model of corporate management. Sure, rhythm isn’t an essential executive skill, but this is surely the whitest business moment ever captured on video.

Developers regularly rated Internet Explorer the worst for browser compatibility, but to be fair it also offered gaping security flaws.

Plus – you will think I’m making this up –  Internet Explorer 8 came with a free Nickelback download. Of a track not good enough to be on a Nickelback album.

 

 

The Copies That Outlasted The Originals

 

In many ways Internet Explorer and Nickelback were the same. They both saw a product with both street cred and commercial success – Netscape Navigator and Nirvana respectively. They copied those products to the best of their ability, and found a market.

Both copy products outlived the originals by decades. Nickelback are still working. If you want analysis of how product suckiness can be a legit business model, it’s here in Success Lessons Of The Bin Chicken:

“(Nickelback) take an entire Internet’s worth of abuse and turn it into music’s greatest free publicity machine. Like Godzilla, every attack just makes them grow bigger.”

 

Internet Explorer Nickelback

 

I’m not saying be Nickelback. But owning the original idea isn’t essential. Sometimes a tweaked copy is enough for success. Steve Jobs didn’t invent the MP3 player.

 

Nothing Is Permanent

 

The end of Internet Explorer is a handy reminder that nothing is permanent in business. Whatever market you’re in, it’s easy to give up when you have a monolithic, pervasive competitor. It feels like they’re going to own the whole market for the next thousand years.

Then one day they don’t.

Sure, in the case of web browsers, Internet Explorer has largely been replaced by Chrome from a newer giant predator, Google.

But further down the food chain, if you were any kind of IT provider in the 90s, you would have based all your plans around eternal Microsoft domination.

When you make long-term plans, don’t assume anything is eternal.

If your sales are 100% based on Facebook now, don’t assume you can ride that train forever.

You might have a successful business making cool peripherals for the creative people who love Apple. Creatives might not love Apple forever.

If your business depends entirely on say, work with airlines or hotels, you know what I’m talking about.

Hedge your risks and assume nothing is permanent.

 

From Mr Monopoly To Mr Public Health

 

This is also an interesting lesson in brand perception.

In the late 90s Microsoft was the target of a major US government anti-trust investigation. Specifically over Internet Explorer, which came pre-installed in every copy of Windows.

The judge ruled Microsoft had ‘committed monopolization’ and ordered the company be broken up. The decision was later overturned on appeal, but the monopolist image stuck.

How the game has changed. Bill Gates is a world leader in public health philanthropy.

Microsoft is a sensibly-managed business, bigger and more successful than it ever was. Without undermining democracy worldwide or snuffing out all competition like other major players in that field.

The anti-trust wagon is starting to roll again. Last week US House lawmakers released a report after a 16-month investigation into Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. They recommend breaking up the companies and passing the most sweeping reforms to antitrust laws in decades.

Microsoft wasn’t even on their radar.

There’s still hope for Nickelback. Show us the data, Chad.

 


 

I write a story like this every Tuesday. Drop your email here to get it in your inbox, entirely free of charge.

Bonus: you get a free e-book on 20 Ways To Improve Your Business Right Now. Practical tips we used to build a $20M national business from pretty much nothing.

Also if you liked this story, why not read this:

(It’s two years old and just noticed there’s a recommendation you should read more Sarah Cooper. From before she became a global Trump clip sensation. Classic hipster ‘I was into her back when when she was underground’ flex.)

Business Mythbusters: 9 Nuggets of Confident Nonsense Decoded

October 12, 2020

Related News

Other posts that you should not miss.
Articles, Most Popular

Last-minute grocery businesses are a massive bag of dicks

June 27, 2022
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth

It’s a business model that seems to have cherry-picked all the worst, hardest, most expensive elements of running a business.

Read More
June 27, 2022
Posted by Ian Whitworth
Articles

Happyland Or Nong Factory: Where Is Your Business Going?

March 4, 2019
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth

Growth risks swamping people in process. If you hire good people, they do good work. They don’t need a ton of process.

Read More
March 4, 2019
Posted by Ian Whitworth
Articles

The Sales vs Operations Cage Fight: Some Refereeing Tips

February 4, 2019
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth

Actually delivering for the customer is the strongest way to build your brand, and for that, sales and operations must learn to get on.

Read More
February 4, 2019
Posted by Ian Whitworth
← PREVIOUS POST
So I Got A Book Contract, Here’s How
NEXT POST →
Food Fatalities: UberEats Must Do Better Than This
FREE E-BOOK

SUBSCRIBE
MOST POPULAR
  • Last-minute grocery businesses are a massive bag of dicks
    June 27, 2022

    It’s a business model that seems to have cherry-picked all the worst, hardest, most expensive elements of running a business.

  • Scotty Marketing
    3 post-Scotty lessons: good marketing is not like that
    May 30, 2022

    Don't be a product that people only buy once. How to make marketing a force for honesty and profitability in your business instead.

  • Undisruptable South Korea deal
    Undisruptable’s first international publishing deal
    January 31, 2022

    Undisruptable will see its first international release later this year and it's not in a country you'd expect.

  • “An Australian business classic.” Reviews of Undisruptable
    July 12, 2021

    The reviews are in and they are very good.

ABOUT IAN WHITWORTH

Ian Whitworth is a reformed advertising creative director turned entrepreneur with a successful national group of businesses that he doesn’t work in day to day. Read more

POPULAR TAGS
management
branding
Sales
Marketing
jargon
Persuasion
Covid 19
Nickelback
Pitching
Coronavirus
strategy
MBA
startup
Copywriting
Motivation
Business
CEO
Design
Graphic Design
Business Travel
Elon Musk
Frequent Flyer
David Attenborough
Advice
Lacey Filipich
Saxton Speakers
Scene Change
Penguin Random House
Gary Vaynerchuk
Sales Pitch
Tendering
Planning
Conversation Skills
Customers
Customer Service
AI
Shingy
LinkedIn
Simon Sinek
Success
Presentations
Mr Pigden
Motivators
Entrepreneur
Ian Wright
Archives
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy
  • Terms & Conditions
© Whitworth Communications 2020
RIP Internet Explorer, The Nickelback Of Browsers - Undisruptable