It was born in August 2001 and its name is Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). That same name has been associated with lack of updates, unpatched browser vulnerabilities and disregard for internet standards. Web developers loath the name and it was the reason that a lot of users (at least those in-the-know) jumped ship and moved to Firefox.
Surprisingly, and according to Microsoft, 12% of online users are still using IE6 almost 10 years later. This has led Microsoft to start a campaign to rid the world from the archaic browser and has begun a countdown with the goal to drop its usage to below 1%. Beyond posing a security risk to those using IE6, it also keeps pressure on web developers to go out of their way to make websites work with the beaten and broken old browser.
China accounts for the lion’s share with 5.9% of the total use, while a large portion of this usage would be accountable to business users whose internal applications have been developed for the old browser.
As Microsoft itself points out, “friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6”. So if you do see someone using it do them a favor and hit the link to at least update IE to a later version, or better still why not get them to give Firefox or Chrome a try; just saying. Oh and for corporate users, Microsoft has put together a list of links to useful resources in making the switch.
[Internet Explorer 6 Countdown]
