With the announcement that Google will no longer be supporting Internet Explorer 6 (ie6) after 2010, the push towards (more) modern browsers in the UK should start gathering some momentum. The key part to the Google announcement is how the news spread across global news websites, not just the techie sites. Unfortunately the announcement didn’t make many waves in view of the general public. The BBC posted up an item which was in the top 10 read news items for a couple of days, which had a positive impact as the more people that know about the faults of IE6 the quicker the browser percentage drops (in theory).
Naturally this doesn’t mean developers should stop supporting IE6 automatically. The decision for the level of browser support has to be based upon site traffic data, budget and the requirements. Government departments are the most guilty of using IE6. From our experience of SBK Healthcare’s Analytics data, the healthcare sector is overwhelming using IE6 (over 40%). As the BBC reported this is due partially to the internal systems which aren’t cheap or easy (in certain cases) to upgrade.
The moral of the story is that everyone should upgrade their browser; be it IE8, Firefox 3.5, Google Chrome, Safari or Opera. You’ll not just be more secure but web developers will be less grouchy.
Tags: analytic, BBC, browsers, google, healthcare, ie6, internet explorer 6, NHS, post 2010
