Search engine giants Google are to phase out support for the aging Internet Explore (IE) 6. IE6 was at the centre of the cyber attacks on Google and as a result many governments advised their citizens not to use IE and instead use competitor browses such as Mozilla Firefox.

Microsoft has released a fix for IE6 but do recommend users to upgrade sooner rather than later. The issue is around 20% of web users still use the aging browser, including many corporate companies as well as UK government departments. with the red tape involved and elections looming, I don’t see this happening anytime soon.

Personally, I want to see the browser totally replaced as it causes many problems with web developments. It does not support modern web standards so I have to keep developing fixes for IE6 users. To be frank, it is a pain in the b’hind.

Microsoft has said it will support the browser till 2014. I would ask Microsoft WHY? Rather than have bug fixes, why not just replace the browser when a user downloads their REGULAR Microsoft Windows patches.

I’m not surprised that this publicity has allowed rivals such as Firefox to gain market share.