Microsoft IE considers renaming product to move away from bad reputation

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) development team members revealed renaming the popular Internet browser in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) chat feature on Monday.

Seeing a declining IE popularity, its developers and program managers said they have been discussing internally to rename the Internet browser, in an effort to differentiate new version from the slow and unsafe predecessors of the product.

IE 8 is the browser that came with the Windows 7 operating system. Since IE 11 release,Microsoft has been facing the problem of some users refusing to upgrade their Internet browser's version.

If people continuing to use older versions of the Internet Explorer, it might take a while for the bad reputation of the browser to be cleared from the thoughts of users, said Microsoft IE team on the Reddit Ask Me Anything.

Data from Net Applications reveal that the Internet Explorer is the most used desktop Internet browser, which holds on to about 58 percent of the market, while Internet Explorer 8 as the most popular version at 21.56 percent.

The IE development team said it is also looking to improve the browser's extensions, as they have lagged behind Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome in that regard.