Internet Explorer will join these now-defunct web services

Internet Explorer is being phased out, with Microsoft yesterday unveiling plans to gradually replace it with a fearsome-sounding browser codenamed Spartan.

There is no timetable for the end of Internet Explorer, which is still used by a significant minority of internet users (Adobe estimates that includes around 30 per cent of browsers in America). Once gone, it will join these other defunct internet services:

MSN Messenger

Everyone’s former favourite instant messaging service shut down for good in October 2014.

Altavista

Napster

The original peer-to-peer file sharing service was started in 1999 and quickly became the target of copyright lawsuits. In 2002 it was acquired by Roxio.

Megaupload

File sharing site Megaupload was started in 2005 and shut down by officials in the US in 2012. The site's founders have been charged with violating piracy laws but deny all charges against them.

CompuServe

CompuServe offered email and several forums devoted to niche interests - in internet terms, it is basically Facebook's great-great-grandparent. It was bought by AOL in 1997 but shut down in 2009.

Hotmail

The email service launched in 1996 is still in existence but became known as Outlook in 2012.

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