Even less support for IE6

Alongside with the HTML 5 discussion, and the release of FireFox 3.5.1 three days ago, voices calling for global content denial to IE6 users are getting more and more. The idea is simple: It’s been SOME years now people are advised to upgrade with nagboxes and the like, yet IE6 enjoys percentages that in several portals reach even 50%. So, this time, instead of “suggesting” website visitors to upgrade their browser for a better user experience, we simply display a “Upgrade your browser to see this web page” – page – , linking to the major browsers updates.

Youtube announced that it’s dropping support for IE6, and Microsoft replied that they are trying to push IE 8, but there are corporate clients that need more time before deploying new software.

Several web guru’s argue that such a move as denying content to IE6 users is extreme and harms accessibility, and we should rather stick to presenting content using a simple CSS file, or even just with skipping IE6 hacks and giving a broken layout. Although the latter opinion sounds more politically correct, I personally believe we reached a point where we need to take more serious action, if it was for things to move ahead. And of course, I would for sure prefer to inform my visitor he can’t render my website correctly because he is using an old browser, rather than showing a broken webpage and making it seem like “it’s the page’s fault”.

If you’re a designer and you want a smart solution in order to suggest your visitors to upgrade, consider ie6update.com solution.