The bottom of the article links to the history (individual features) of other IM programs from that era as well like ICQ and Yahoo Messenger.
In 2003, Internet Explorer had a 95% market share. Your running joke was demonstrably untrue.
4 points
I mean, you name dropped Netscape. Your next of kin is probably rehearsing the talk where they take your car keys away as we speak.
The topic of discussion is MSN Messenger, its popularity and demise, which puts us in the period between 1999 and ~2008. Especially during the first half of that decade, practically everyone was using IE. And not really liking it, but using it nevertheless.