Internet Explorer 6 is the browser that just doesn’t want to die, even though it has now been superseded by two generations of Internet Explorer, and Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera offer great alternatives. Slowly, however, we are seeing that web developers are phasing out support for IE6, and the latest service to join this movement is Google’s YouTube. According to some reports, a message now appears on YouTube when a user accesses the site with IE6, informing users that the service will be “phasing out support for your browser soon.” The logos of Google Chrome, Firefox, and IE8 appear right next to the text.
Who Uses IE6?
Most users who have a choice would probably switch away from IE6 in a heartbeat, but if the stats for YouTube are anything like what Digg found in regards to phasing out support for IE6, then most YouTube users who are actually still using IE6 do so from work. Digg found that 90% of its IE6 users were using this antiquated browser at work, where they probably have no other option. About 80% of those who responded to Digg’s survey couldn’t change to another browser because they had no administrator access to their computer, weren’t allowed to upgrade, or simply couldn’t upgrade because they were still running Windows 2000, ME, or 98. About 17% of Digg’s users simply didn’t feel the need to upgrade and 7% said they preferred IE6 to other browsers (we wonder how many of these people were serious, though).
Of course, it is also important to note that Google also uses messages like “Gmail runs better in Chrome” to push its own browser regularly and regularly runs ads for Chrome on YouTube.
Image Credit: Ajaxian.
