Microsoft is asking nicely - please stop using IE 6

by Steve Ragan - Mar 8 2011, 10:00

It’s not often that Microsoft encourages consumers to stop using one of their products, but for Internet Explorer 6, they are willing to make an exception. The request from Redmond came on Friday, as the software giant moved forward with plans to move people away from the 10-year-old browser.

The browser just won’t die. Considered one of the first major browsing breakthroughs at the time of its release, Internet Explorer 6 set the bar. Today, the Internet has changed. Yet, for the most part, IE 6 can still keep up with the newer versions of itself in basic Web usage.

There is still plenty of use for IE 6 in legacy applications; you see this in IT for the most part. When we talk about legacy, we’re speaking not only about older hardware and software, but the Windows operating system itself.

IE 6 usage is strong as well with consumers who use older equipment. For example, the largest concentration of IE 6 usage today is in China, where there is legacy usage for business, and outdated equipment on the consumer side.

In the U.S., IE 6 enjoys a 2.9-percent usage rate, and Canada is close with 3.3-percent. Japan, according to Microsoft’s chart, has just over 10-percent of the market on the old browser, along with Taiwan. South Korea is nearing 25-percent.

These numbers are too high, so Microsoft has developed a website that is dedicated to watching the worldwide use of their classic browser fall to less than one percent.

The site has information for both corporate and home users that explains why they should switch. For the consumer side of things, the emphasis is on the newer browsing experience they get with Internet Explorer 8. Corporate users are reminded of the security impact, and linked to various studies on migration.

If you are using IE 6, you should upgrade. It’s no longer supported, and compared to standards now, it’s lacking plenty of functionality.

Microsoft’s IE 6 Countdown page is here.

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