On August 27, 2001, the sixth version of a web browser called Internet Explorer (IE6) was released by Microsoft. In 2002 and 2003, at least 90% of all computers surfing the web were using IE6. IE6 was a great web browser… for its time. Even though it achieved market dominance and was extremely popular among consumers, IE6 gave web developers constant headaches as they developed and debugged websites for a web browser that was not always helpful. Consumers may have loved IE6, but web developers were not as thrilled.
Finally, ten years later it’s official. Web developers can finally stop wasting hours and hours of time designing and debugging websites for IE6. Why? Because even Microsoft says it’s time to move on. Microsoft has created their own website on why everyone should upgrade at www.ie6countdown.com
They’re asking for everyone’s help on finally killing off the outdated and buggy web browser by providing banner code that will only show up if you’re using IE6. The banner states, “You are using an outdated browser. For a faster, safer browsing experience, upgrade for free today.” If you have this code on your website, you can also submit your company logo to them and they will post it on the site with all the other company logos. The goal is to get worldwide usage to under one percent.
I applaud Microsoft for finally putting an end to this nightmare and pushing others to stop using IE6 as well. Now websites can evolve even more because IE6 isn’t holding them back.
