So we’ve all been wanting to say this for a while. ‘Screw IE6′. But we can’t, or at least businesses can’t, and therefore web developers can’t. We all know there is still a massive number of uneducated web users, still browsing with IE6. Therefore we have to design to their needs. Special needs, as we call them in the UK (IE6, not the users of course).

Any web developer will tell you what a pain in the backside this process is. First you design your site, which will tend to work in Firefox, IE7 and Chrome, with maybe a few tweeks. Then you have to re-design a whole bulk of the site again, in order for it to work in IE6. It’s a real joke.

Google really stood up for the team recently, when they started urging Gmail users to ditch IE6, and replace it with Firefox or Chrome (they’re keeping open minded, proving it’s not a bias thing, they’re doing this purely for technical reasons). Personally I think this is great news. Google is one of the few big voices that the masses of web users may actually listen to, especially small business, who I assume are the majority of people still hanging on to IE6 – but also the home users who are just totally unaware that there are better browsers out there.

Good one Google. Glad to see you have our back.