IE6.
Say that word to any computer geek, and you’re almost guaranteed to get a poisonous look.
IE6 stands for Internet Explorer 6. Microsoft released it in 2001, shortly after the wide distribution of Windows XP.
8 years later, it’s still got a 15-25% market share, depending on which statistics you believe.
What’s wrong with IE6?
When it came out in 2001, there wasn’t anything wrong with IE6. As time’s gone on, however, IE6 has become a worse and worse choice for browsing the ‘net. Why?
Because the internet has moved on.
IE6 doesn’t support CSS v2 (the stuff that helps your designer beautify your web pages), PNG transparency (making your website look janky to some visitors), or any of the tags in the rapidly forthcoming HTML 5 (trust me, these are awesome).
A number of famous web companies have discontinued or cut back support for IE6. 37Signals, Facebook, Youtube, and Digg are only a few.
Still, not everyone can afford to lose a section of the market, and must ask their web designer to code around IE6′s limitations. This means increased cost for the person commissioning the site, increased programming time and frustration for the web developer, and badness all around.
More alarmingly, the security on IE6 is atrocious. Hackers love exploiting security holes in IE6 to take control of computers and do Very Bad Things.
IE6 sucks.
Why’s it still so popular then?
For two reasons:
- It’s the browser that comes bundled with every new installation of Windows XP.
- Corporations.
No, corporations aren’t out to steal your soul by making you use a crappy browser. They’re out to reduce their short-term costs in this recession by not having their IT Guys re-code the company’s internal software to work with IE8 (the current version), Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or another modern browser.
That was why every computer at the Dreaded Day Job still boasted a copy of IE6.
Why should I bother doing anything about it?
Because – unbeknownst to you – your website probably looks like hell in IE6.
This means your clients are getting a bad first impression of you. It probably means you’re losing sales, since some shopping cart templates don’t work in IE6.
Even if your website works with IE6, getting it to look good in that browser has probably cost you a lot of money – in terms of the time it took your web designer to “dumb down” her work enough to be readable by IE6. If you’re considering a redesign, or if you’ve recently done one, this affects you and your clients.
And if, God forbid, you’re using IE6 on your machine, you’ve invited every hacker into the neighborhood to do Bad Stuff to your computer. Close the barn door!
Ok, what can I do?
The solution is very simple.
If you’re using IE6 on your machine, then for the love of God upgrade. Try IE8, Firefox, Chrome, or Opera.
For site owners using WordPress, there are a number of plugins you can install that will tell anyone visiting your site in IE6 to upgrade to a more modern browser. Some of the best are WP-IE6Update and Shockingly Big IE6 Warning.
For site owners using other CMS packages or lovely hand-coding, IE6 No More has some lovely code samples for you too.
Help in the fight for better web standards.
Even if you don’t know your HTML from your elbow, it’s important to understand what’s going on with IE6 and how it’s been restricting innovation on the web.
You really can help change things just by installing a plugin or pressing a couple of buttons to upgrade your browser.
For more info:
See Bring Down IE6 or other sites of the ilk.
IE6 No More has some good information on the corporate users.
Honorable mention to the parody site Save IE6.
Need a little help? Whether it’s with IE6 or anything else, we’d love to help you get the most out of the web. Check out our coaching, or contact us and we’ll show you what we can do to make your world a little better.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Nothing is more fascinating to me than watching my husband (the lead developer for his company) go through every page on their site in each browser iteration he can get his hands on.
I mean that takes meticulousness with a capital M!
But I’m pretty sure that even he doesn’t bother with IE6.
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