Google is set to end support for Internet Explorer 6 for all its services, beginning with Google Docs and Google Sites in March. If you’re still rocking the aging Internet Explorer 6 and want to keep going with Google, read on to find out what to do next…

In a post on the Official Google Enterprise blog, Google explained that it’s set to remove support for “older browsers”. That means anything prior to Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.0, Google Chrome 4.0 and Safari 3.0. The Google blog says: “…from March 1 key functionality – as well as new Docs and Sites features – won’t work properly in older browsers.”

Internet Explorer 6 vulnerabilities were allegedly behind the Chinese attacks on Google. The problems have now been patched but Internet Explorer 6 is nearing the end of its lifespan. Microsoft itself won’t support Internet Explorer 6 for its own Microsoft Office Web apps.

If you’re one of the 20.99 percent of web users who were still using Internet Explorer 6 at the end of 2009, all you need to do to keep using Google Docs and Sites is to upgrade your browser. There’s a lot of choice with Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer 8.

Out now | £free | Google

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  • vince

    Why would anyone not want to upgrade? I ditched supporting IE6 ages ago – causes headaches for us developers!

    • TimJBart

      I think the problem is big corporate companies sometimes have everything locked down, so no updates have been installed since IE6.

      Also, some basic web users do not even know how to change a browser. They think IE is the internet, so for them there is no choice to be made!

      • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

        I don’t care how many company IT staff get headaches from the transition, it has to happen. Good for Google forcing their hands: IE6 needs to die, now.

  • Ed

    This is just Google playing politics. It’s nothing more than indulging a dislike of Microsoft, by resuming the good old sport of Microsoft bashing – this time in the hope of gaining a commercial advantage by enhancing the user-base for their own web browser, Chrome, at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

    As Google has a financial interest in rubbishing IE6, this is not an unbiased assessment of that browser, but is merely a blatent piece of opportunism, following Google’s well-publicised alleged problems with IE6 over the last few days.

    The reality is that Google are only planning to upgrade some unimportant aspects of their website. The search engine, the important bit, will continue to function normally in IE 5 and IE 6.

    Many IE6 users are running some version of Windows 9x, on an older computer, one that isn’t capable of running IE7. So what Google is really saying is: we demand that you buy a new computer, and a new Operating System, and all-new Windows NT software.

    Well, no one is going to do that! Not because one search engine makes a trivial change to its website. Although they might not like to think so, even if Google disappears tomorrow there are plenty of other search engines.

    • http://www.gravatar.com James Holland

      Ed, I completely see your point, but IE 6 is horribly outdated, not the most secure and doesn’t support many now-standard web development and design languages. When building elements of Electricpig, we’ve found it a nightmare to support. It’s incredibly frustrating for us, as we know the site would look better, work more efficiently and our readers would be more secure if they upgraded. There are plenty of browsers that’ll work better than IE 6 on old hardware. Opera. Chrome. Firefox. Flock. The list goes on – nobody’s forcing you to buy a new PC, but you have to recognise that times change, things improve, and nobody will be worse off but yourself if you stick fast and refuse to update as technology improves. One of the many headaches that come with being a tech fan, I think…

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