Even Microsoft hates IE6
In whats is a welcome relief for everyone in the online industry, Microsoft has announced that it to, thinks its time for IE6 to be shown the door, with the launch of a new website 'Internet Explorer 6 Countdown'.
On its new website, IE6Countdown.com, Microsoft is making its most concentrated effort yet to get users to move away from the decade-old browser. As the site says in its preamble, "10 years ago a browser was born. …It's time to say goodbye."
The goal of the website is to get Internet Explorer 6 usage to drop to less than 1% worldwide. Current IE 6 usage on a global level is 12% — though in many parts of the world, that figure is less than 5%. In the U.S., Net Application's most recent numbers indicate that 2.9% of web users are still using IE 6.
That's a great start. The website has links to reasons why users should upgrade, documentation for corporate networks that need to migrate to a new browser and banners that webmasters can embed in their sites, alerting users that they should upgrade.
This is all well and good, but we sure hope that there is a multi-lingual version of this campaign. We say that because the bulk of iE 6 usage comes from China, where 34.5% of users are still on IE 6. South Korea, India, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam also still report more than 10% IE 6 usage.
Mashable
What do you think? Are you still using IE6 and determined not to change? Here at Optimising SEO and Website design, we are VERY pleased to hear about this initiative-as all developers know, IE6 will keep you up very late at night.
James Richardson
Co-Founder
James is Co-Founder of Optimising who’s worked with everyone from national retailers and franchise groups to fast-growing eCommerce brands. He’s as interested in how AI engines send traffic as he is in old-fashioned rankings, and spends a lot of time testing how brands show up across search.
He started out running sports fan sites and early eCommerce stores, picked up a few senior sales and marketing roles at ASX-listed companies, then decided to build the kind of SEO agency he actually wanted to work at. Outside work, James is usually being out-negotiated by his three daughters, hosting very serious pretend tea parties, or supervising yet another cubby house build in the lounge room.
