Counting Down Internet Explorer 6 Usage Share

On this day a year ago, Aten Design Group hosted a funeral for IE6 in Denver, Colorado. We heard about it and sent flowers. While the funeral gave a strong indication of the desire to rid the world of IE6, the browser still has a presence. So today, we bring you the next step in our mission to see IE6 gone for good. To demonstrate our commitment to getting rid of IE6, we’re launching a website called ie6countdown.com.



Now that it’s 2011, IE6 is officially a ten-year old browser. According to Net Applications, IE6 still has 12% share worldwide. Our goal is to get this share under 1% worldwide. Why 1%? We realize that there might not a magic number for when web developers and IT pros can drop support for older browsers, but we believe that 1% will allow more sites and IT pros worldwide to make IE6 a low-priority browser – meaning you don’t have to invest as much time in updates or fixes. We recognize that IE6 usage varies depending on where you live, so ie6countdown.com includes the details of IE6 share by country. We will update the site’s stats on a monthly basis and celebrate as countries dip under the 1% mark!

We know that many IE6 users are on the older browser because it’s at their workplace. We’ve put together some resources for IT pros to help understand the business value of moving off IE6 and are delivering to them the tools to help them navigate the process. And, with the assets provided on ie6countdown.com, we’re encouraging developers around the world to spread the word by placing an upgrade notification to IE6 users on their website. Top websites, like CNET, have already done this on their website, and other sites, like Meebo and MSN, are launching upgrade notifications soon.

We’re inviting everyone to share this site with friends, acquaintances, clients, and IT admins to see for themselves why even Microsoft thinks the world would be better off without IE6. Please join us in tracking the progress as we count down the market share of IE6.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, IE6 was a great browser for its time, but we all need the web to move forward. Visit ie6countdown.com today, and help us say farewell to IE6!

Thanks,

Roger Capriotti
Director, Internet Explorer Product Marketing

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[fieseler]

Why users still use it over a modern browser, I have no idea. It really does suck for browsing esp. with the lack of tabs. TBH when IE7 was released as a beta, was the worst moment of my life when I had to revert back to IE6 because the beta kept crashing on me.