Microsoft: It's Time to Say Goodbye to Internet Explorer 6

For the love of all that is holy on the Internet, it's time to stick in a fork in Internet Explorer 6 and consider it done, says Microsoft (and we wholeheartedly agree, by the way), in a matter of words. That's not a direct quote from the Redmond software giant, but heck, the company did go and create an "Internet Explorer 6 Countdown" page in which Microsoft gleefully points out IE6's shrinking market share around the world.

"10 years ago a browser was born. Its name was Internet Explorer 6. Now that we’re in 2012, in an era of modern Web standards, it’s time to say goodbye," Microsoft says. "This website is dedicated to watching Internet Explorer 6 usage drop to less than 1% worldwide, so more websites can choose to drop support for Internet Explorer 6, saving hours of work for Web developers."

Oh boy, does that ever ooze with irony. Microsoft is 100 percent right, it's time to dropkick IE6 and never look back. But that whole bit about Web standards? It was Microsoft who essentially borked the Web as we know it by insisting on its own proprietary standards, and because its market share was/is so large, Web developers had no choice but to follow suit.


But whatever, Microsoft apparently sees the light now, and along with Google, Mozilla, Opera Software, and others, the browser maker is doing a much better job adhering to Web standards, especially as we enter the era of HTML5.

As for IE6, it's share is down to 0.9 percent in the U.S., one of the lowest around the world, though not quite as low as Norway (0.2 percent) or Finland (0.5 percent), according to data by Net Applications. In the Peoples Republic of China, IE6 still maintains a greater than 25 percent share, by far the most of any region.

What browser(s) are you rocking these days?