14 DAY TRIAL // A clear stance to encourage people and companies to upgrade their browsers is long overdue and, while many websites and services, big and small, have indicated that they won't be supporting outdated browsers, specifically Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, for too long, it is only recently that things have begun to move. And with Google leading the way, IE 6 is headed for a rough patch. Having already announced that it will drop support for the aging browser in Google Docs and Sites, the company is taking another clear step by putting a more or less official date on a similar move from YouTube.
YouTube, owned by Google, will stop explicitly supporting IE6 and other older browsers come March 13, as revealed by a post on the site's help pages and a notice showing up for those using the outcast browsers. It's a big move, but not an extreme one, IE6 users will be able to continue to watch videos on the site, but new features introduced from that point forward are not guaranteed to work properly or at all in the older web browsers.
There's no shock announcement here, YouTube has said it will drop support for older browsers anything below Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.0, Chrome 4.0 and Safari 3.0. For the last three, this isn't much of a problem. Chrome is automatically updated and users usually run the latest version even if they don't know it. Safari is mostly employed on Mac, though a Windows version is available, and most people have updated to the latest Safari 4.0.
There are still some people using Firefox 2.0 and even 1.5, but these make up a very small percentage of Firefox's user base. The real target here is Internet Explorer 6, the Microsoft browser that shipped with Windows XP almost ten years ago, in 2001. IE 6 has been the bane of countless web developers because of its very poor support for web standards and numerous quirks, which meant that every website had to be specifically designed to work in IE 6. However, 20 percent of the world's Internet users still rely on the ancient browser, many without having a choice in the matter, as many companies refuse or are unable to upgrade. But, as others begin to follow in Google's footsteps or, more likely, as Windows 7 gets a wider adoption, IE 6 should be heading to its long-overdue demise.