Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) – will it ever die?

20.6% of Ethan Allens visits in October 2009 came from Internet Explorer 6 web browsers – 3.5% more than IE8 and 3.5% less than IE7. Internet Explorer as a whole registered nearly 62% of all visits to the site. I expect that there are quite a few IE6 users on systems that can’t be upgraded to IE7 – Windows 95, 98, Me and 2000. I have a feeling that we will see a significant decline in IE6 numbers after this holiday season but it’s going to persist at around 10% for quite a while. Maybe years. It will go down in history as the browser that never died.

One strategy is to encourage IE6 users on none IE7/8 capable systems to upgrade to Firefox. Pop up an overlay when they visit the site explaining to them that their browsing experience will be greatly enhanced if they switch to the Firefox or Chrome browsers. If enough websites start doing this then people will start getting the message.

Or maybe not.

Until the day comes when IE6 hits some magical number where clients will say enough is enough the coders can continue pulling their hair out.