Maybe you’ve had issues with your website with IE6 and you’ve been trying to fix the errors or even to the extent many designers have gone – use complex coding trickery to make things work. WordPress has been doing just that for some time and finally, it announces an end to IE6 support on their hosted WordPress.com blogs and soon the self-hosted WordPress installs with WordPress 3.2 .
What’s so bad about IE6?
IE6 is outdated technology – many of the new web technologies are simply incompatible with IE6: CSS v2, HTML 5, PNG transparency, general security. In fact, Microsoft has recently launched a website, IE6Countdown.com, to ask users to move away from the IE6 browser. Currently IE6 usage is 12% worldwide and Microsoft hopes to drop that to less than 1%.
So why are people still using IE6?
IE6 is the standard browser of Windows XP, which is still the most used operating system worldwide. Also, many people do not see the need to upgrade. So, unless a significant company like Google not loading in IE6, people will remain content with their browser.
Other companies dropping IE6 Support?
Both Digg and Youtube (http://garmahis.com/tools/ie6-update-warning/) have announced that they are cutting back (http://about.digg.com/blog/much-ado-about-ie6) on IE6 support and Facebook advices you to use a newer browser if you try to login with IE6.
Beginning of the end for IE6?
What it means to you and your WordPress blog?
Seeing big names like WordPress drop support completely might make you rethink your own battles with IE6. WordPress 3.2 is available in June, which means many of us will be upgrading our WordPress blogs. But this new WordPress version does not support IE6, so you will need to advise your site visitors. There are two ways:
- The “IE6 Upgrade Option” plugin for WordPress will display a warning screen if your visitor is using IE6 when they visit your website. The warning simply informs them that their IE6 browser is out of date and insecure and provide links to sites where more a more modern browser (such as FireFox, Chrome, IE9) can be downloaded.
- Microsoft has provided a simple code on their IECountdown.com website that you can copy and paste within the <body> tag of your website. For more information you can visit their website at: http://ie6countdown.com/join-us.html