14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced that it's dropping support for Internet Explorer 6 within AdWords. Before you get too excited, or too worried, this applies to the AdWords dashboard, not the ads themselves, these will continue to run on IE6 for the foreseeable future.
"By the end of this year, advertisers accessing the AdWords web interface will be required to use Internet Explorer 7 or 8, or any other compatible browser to log in into their account," Lauren Barbato, from the Inside AdWords crew, announced.
"If you are still accessing AdWords with Internet Explorer 6, you’ll see a notice in your account encouraging you to upgrade as soon as possible," she said.
"For optimal performance and a faster experience, we recommend you use the latest version of your preferred browser to access AdWords," she added.
Google is not being very aggressive in this case, it's only dropping support for IE6, but IE7 and above are still supported as are older versions of Chrome, Safari and Chrome.
Specifically, starting with 2012, the AdWords interface will only run on Firefox 3 and above, Safari 3 or later, Internet Explorer 7 and Google Chrome of course. But Google recommends even newer versions, Firefox 3.6, Safari 4 or IE8, for best results.
Google never specifies any version when it comes to Google Chrome, but this is purely because the browser always updates itself to the latest version, unless you disable the feature, so chances are you're already running a compatible Chrome.
But if you're one of the very few people still running ancient versions, say Google Chrome 2, things may still go wrong.
Still, the move is sure to affect some people, unfortunately IE6 is still seeing some use in the enterprise environment, so some advertisers may find themselves locked out. Of course, if losing access to your AdWords account is not reason enough to upgrade your browser, nothing is.