Microsoft created a website dedicated to dropping usage of IE6 worldwide to 1 percent.
I honestly don’t know anyone who still consciously chooses to use Internet Explorer, let alone a ten year old version of the application. But apparently, a lot of people still do, and even the application’s creator Microsoft is fed up enough to start an initiative to make people stop. At IE6countdown, Microsoft tracks the usage of its ten year old browser in real time, and offers tips and strategies on how to cut down the number of people who use it by encouraging them to upgrade to IE9. As far as I can tell, it’s the first campaign for a company to stop people from using its product.
“10 years ago a browser was born,” the website reads. “Its name was Internet Explorer 6. Now that we’re in 2011, in an era of modern web standards, it’s time to say goodbye. 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.”
According to the website, Asian countries are especially prone to using old technology as 34.5 percent China uses IE6 and South Korea isn’t far behind with 24.8. Only 12.5 percent of the world still uses IE6, but because of population percentage that figures to half of the problem being China.
Why isn’t ie6countdown.com available in Chinese then?
To be honest, I can’t understand why people are still using ancient browsers. I used Firefox as soon as I heard about it and moved to Chrome when Google released it and never looked back. Given how fast technology improves, I’m always surprised when I meet someone who is convinced that what they learned to use at first is always the best. It makes me wonder how many people are still using Netscape Navigator.
Source: IE6countdown
