Push Admin

RIP Internet Explorer: South Korean engineer's browser 'grave' goes viral

Article (news)

Claire Lee, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="This undated handout photo provided courtesy of Kiyoung Jung on June 17, 2022 shows a grave for Microsoft" s="" Internet="" which="" was="" retired="" by="" the="" company="" earlier="" this="" week="" after="" in="" honor="" of="" on="" rooftop="" a="" cafe="" South="" southern="" city="" Gyeongju.="" A="" Korean="" engineer="" who="" built="" grave="" for="" Explorer="" photos="" quickly="" went="" viral="" told="" AFP="" June="" that="" now-defunct="" web="" browser="" had="" made="" his="" life="" misery.="" Kiyoung="" Jung="" Courtesy="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/afp/06/17/rip-internet-explorer-afp.jpg"/><figcaption>This undated handout photo provided courtesy of Kiyoung Jung on June 17, 2022 shows a grave for Microsoft&#x27;s Internet Explorer, which was retired by the company earlier this week after 27 years, in honor of the browser&#x27;s &quot;death&quot;, on the rooftop of a cafe in South Korea&#x27;s southern city of Gyeongju. A South Korean engineer who built a grave for Internet Explorer -- photos of which quickly went viral -- told AFP on June 17 that the now-defunct web browser had made his life a misery. Kiyoung Jung / Courtesy of Kiyoung Jung / AFP</figcaption></figure></div>SEOUL - A South Korean engineer who built a grave for Internet Explorer -- photos of which quickly went viral -- told AFP Friday that the now-defunct web browser had made his life a misery.South Korea, which has some of the world&#x27;s fastest average internet speeds, remained bizarrely wedded to Microsoft&#x27;s Internet Explorer, which was retired by the company earlier this week after 27 years.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/05/21/21/microsoft-retires-internet-explorer-browser">Goodbye Internet Explorer: Microsoft announces browser retirement</a></li></ul>In honor of the browser&#x27;s &quot;death&quot;, a gravestone marked with its signature &quot;e&quot; logo was set up on the rooftop of a cafe in South Korea&#x27;s southern city of Gyeongju by engineer Kiyoung Jung, 38.&quot;He was a good tool to use to download other browsers,&quot; the gravestone&#x27;s inscription reads. Images of Jung&#x27;s joke tombstone quickly spread online, with users of social media site Reddit upvoting it tens of thousands of times.Once dominant globally, Internet Explorer was widely reviled in recent years due to its slowness and glitches.But in South Korea, it was mandatory for online banking and shopping until about 2014, as all such online activities required sites to use ActiveX -- a plugin created by Microsoft. It remained the default browser for many Seoul government sites until very recently, local reports said.The websites of the Korea Water Resources Corporation and the Korea Expressway Corporation only functioned properly in IE until at least June 10, according to a report by the Maeil Economic Daily.<div> &#x27;Suffering&#x27; for IE </div>As a software engineer and web developer, Jung told AFP he constantly &quot;suffered&quot; at work because of compatibility issues involving the now-defunct browser. &quot;In South Korea, when you are doing web development work, the expectation was always that it should look good in Internet Explorer, rather than Chrome,&quot; he said.Websites that look good in other browsers, such as Safari or Chrome, can look very wrong in IE, which often forced him to spend many extra hours working to ensure compatibility.Jung said that he was &quot;overjoyed&quot; by IE&#x27;s retirement.But he also said he felt genuinely nostalgic and emotional about the browser&#x27;s demise, as he remembers its heyday -- one of the reasons he was inspired to erect the grave stone.He quoted Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki: &quot;People are often relieved that machines don&#x27;t have souls, but we as human beings actually give our hearts to them,&quot; Jung told AFP, explaining his feelings for IE.He said he was pleased by the response to his joke grave and that he and his brother -- who owns the cafe -- plan to leave the monument on the rooftop in Gyeongju indefinitely.&quot;It&#x27;s been very exciting to make others laugh,&quot; he said.<div>cdl/ceb/jta/oho</div><div>© Agence France-Presse </div>

A South Korean engineer who built a grave for Internet Explorer -- photos of which quickly went viral -- told AFP Friday that the now-defunct web browser had made his life a misery.

RIP Internet Explorer: South Korean engineer's browser 'grave' goes viral

News

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Sports

Metro.Style

More

Traffic

Manila

Horoscope

News

RIP Internet Explorer: South Korean engineer's browser 'grave' goes viral

Claire Lee,

Agence France-Presse

Published Jun 17, 2022 04:23 PM PHT

Read More:

internet explorer

browser

south korea

IE

odd

offbeat

viral

safari

google chrome

firefox

ABS-CBN is the leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, offering quality content across TV, radio, digital, and film. Committed to public service and promoting Filipino values, ABS-CBN continues to inspire and connect audiences worldwide.

Corporate

Investors

Governance

International Distribution

Corporate

Governance

Investors

International Distribution

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

AI Policy

Terms of Service

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.