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Microsoft begs users to stop using IE6

Updated

By Christina Warren, Mashable

Microsoft is ready to move beyond Internet Explorer 6. The software giant has launched a new website, The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, that bears the slogan: "Moving the world off Internet Explorer 6."

Here at Mashable, we've written at length about the problems created by the continued usage of IE 6. With the exception of specialized corporate/government environments and intranets, the arguments for continued usage of IE 6 are all but over.

On its new website, IE6Countdown.com, Microsoft is making its most concentrated effort yet to get users to move away from the decade-old browser. As the site says in its preamble, "10 years ago a browser was born. …It's time to say goodbye." The goal of the website is to get Internet Explorer 6 usage to drop to less than 1% worldwide.

Current IE 6 usage on a global level is 12% — though in many parts of the world, that figure is less than 5%. In the U.S., Net Application's most recent numbers indicate that 2.9% of web users are still using IE 6. That's a great start.

The website has links to reasons why users should upgrade, documentation for corporate networks that need to migrate to a new browser and banners that webmasters can embed in their sites, alerting users that they should upgrade.

This is all well and good, but we sure hope that there is a multi-lingual version of this campaign. We say that because the bulk of iE 6 usage comes from China, where 34.5% of users are still on IE 6. South Korea, India, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam also still report more than 10% IE 6 usage.

Frankly, we're happy to see Microsoft take the time to push for the death of IE 6. It's a long time coming and the faster we can move on to more modern browsers, the better the web ecosystem as a whole will be.

When was the last time you used IE 6? Let us know in the comments.

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