Facebook, now YouTube, twitter... IE6 is fading fast.

My morning news perusal (ANN IS on your list… right?) chanced upon this glorious little nugget on Slashdot from contributor OracleGoddess:

Oracle Goddess sends word that YouTube is presenting IE6 users with a banner exhorting them to upgrade to a modern browser, and TechCrunch is reporting that YouTube will be phasing out support for IE6 soon. This Twitter search reflects the jubilation breaking out all over the Net at the imminent demise of this most despised and non-standards-compliant browser. The market share for IE6 is now well down in the single digits.

I can’t help but convey to you the absolute horror that programming for IE6 is in the year 2009 while still trying to keep more modern browsers displaying our content here on ANN, and the other web properties of Rubber City Radio Group. I won’t go into all of the details, there is so much more we could be doing for our page designs and functionality on the sites, but while a still sizable minority of people still visit our sites using this old beastie, we don’t want to alienate them by presenting them with either a fully broken page or a scrapbook mosaic that looked like Walt Disney vomited on their monitor. If IE6 drops to a small enough percentage (and it will, Firefox and Chrome and over time increasing in use… they’re better in all regards, and they’re free. I’m not against the use of Internet Explorer 8, either, it’s a suitable replacement) then we will quit support for it as well and move on to bigger and better things.

Keep in mind that IE6 was first released in 2001, and as most people replace their systems in 4-6 years, it goes without saying that it’s time to get rid of it. Would you buy a new car and insist that parts from your old trade-in car be used? Didn’t think so.

Lastly, my compatriot Andrew reminds me that Facebook and Twitter are on board. Judging from the broad swath of users these sites cover, hopefully this IE6 drop will occur a lot faster than previously we’d hoped.