It looks like YouTube may be ready to officially drop support for Internet Explorer 6. Those out there that are still on Internet Explorer 6 will start getting a message saying that they should upgrade to a more modern browser. Honestly, I feel that this should be Microsoft’s job to force people to upgrade but it is nice to see websites encouraging its users to upgrade. Really Microsoft should just force it as the same type of upgrade that a high priority security update so that the world wakes up one day to IE 8. It may be a small PR problem for a few days, but the world will be much better off in the long run.

As a member of the web development industry I have to jump for joy. While I am not the one responsible for making sure things work in IE6, I have to think about the pain. Really you almost have to wonder why we still support IE 6 at all. Supporting IE 6 would be like Microsoft supporting Windows ME along with Windows XP and Vista. Windows ME is old and in the past and supporting it is not in anyone’s best interest.

With the overall internet using IE 6 below 10% you have to wonder if supporting it is really worth it. With the advancements in the web since IE 6, are you holding back 90% of your users to make sure all is the same for the other 10%? It probably is not worth it.

Frankly if you are using IE 6 willingly, you deserve to have a worse experience on the internet than the rest of us. You have gone out of your way to make you are not using a modern browser. Please upgrade. If you feel that you cannot upgrade due to a corporate policy, then install Firefox on a flash drive and run it that way. That way you at least know you are not contributing to one of the largest problems with the internet today.

Sources:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/14/youtube-will-be-next-to-kiss-ie6-support-goodbye/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/05/since-march-internet-explorer-lost-114-percent-share-to-firefox-safari-and-chrome/
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-US-monthly-200807-200907