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Are you still using Internet Explorer 6? Please stop, right now.

Hi.   Welcome to Web Watch.

What browser are you using?

If you answer with anything other than INTERNET EXPLORER version 6, then welcome.  You can skip this post entirely and go on to find other, more interesting things that we’ve posted on Web Watch over the years.

In other words, this post is not for you.

Internet Explorer 9 Quick Reference Card
Internet Explorer 9 Quick Reference Card

According to the INTERNET EXPLORER 6 COUNTDOWN page, IE6 is still being used by 1.3% of the US (and by 3.8% of those in China).

This is good, but not good enough.  Over 6% of the entire world is still using IE6 as of today, and that’s just too many.

IE6 is just a crappy browser.  While some complain that any Microsoft browser is a bad browser, Internet Explorer has made massive improvements over what IE6 had.

IE7 was relatively decent and stable.  IE8 was pretty darn good too.  And IE9 has gotten fairly positive reviews for fixing all the things that were still considered flawed in IE7 and IE8.

You can’t go wrong with IE8, and IE9 is definitely worth the trip if you have to use a Microsoft browser.

But IE6 wasn’t fit for anybody to use.  It’s full of security holes and really shouldn’t be used for anything.   Ever.

We know you’re out there:  1% of all Web Watch visits over the past 7 months have come from IE6 users.  (For the record, the majority of Web Watch visitors are using Chrome. If that’s you, then congrats — why are you still reading this?)

Web Watch doesn’t care if you want to use Chrome, Opera, Firefox over any Microsoft browser… but at least do yourself and your co-workers/friends/family a favor and ask them — nay, force them — to upgrade their computers to eliminate IE6 from their systems.   You don’t even have to use the IE that gets upgraded!  But you want to get IE6 out of there as soon as possible.

This has been another Public Service Announcement from Web Watch and the Web Gangsta.