We’ve just emerged from the business end of a large web launch, of which we’re very happy with the result. As often happens when you are building a global website for a large corporation with an ambitious timeline and a hard deadline, the final week meant a lot of late nights that ran into early mornings, many conference calls, and a few curve balls thrown in for good measure by the chaps at C-level.
It’s all good stuff that comes with the job and is to be expected… and we do love it really.
But there’s one thing we have to deal with that really gets my goat. It’s Internet Explorer 6 and the spectre it casts over every web build.
Before all you marketers switch off and flip the page, you should read on. This affects your business and your users. You should know about this, and your influence can help bring a swifter end to this problem.
What I (and many others) want is for the world to stop using IE6. The motive behind this wish is not about making my job easier, neither does it stem from anti-Microsoft sentiments, instead it’s simply about making the web a better place, and about making your digital marketing more effective. So let me explain what the issues are.
What is IE6?
Internet Explorer 6 is the native browser shipped with Windows XP. The little blue ‘e’ you click on to launch the Internet. It’s getting on for a decade in age, which for a browser is utterly ancient and way past retirement age. But it’s still used by businesses: IE6’s market share is currently about 20-30 per cent – the exact amount depends on your audience – so right now it’s very much a consideration when we are producing websites.
Now, anyone with a bit of awareness about the issue – and who has a choice – won’t be using IE6. It is, quite frankly, rubbish. It’s the Skoda of browsers (before Skoda became okay). It’s old, it’s slow, and it crashes a lot. It can’t handle modern web code.
Big problems
If that wasn’t reason enough to change, then try this: it’s a security risk. It’s full of holes that Microsoft continues to have to plug, almost a decade after its release. It’s so bad that Wikipedia tells me that as of Feb 9 2010 there were still 24 known security holes that are yet to be fixed.
It’s so bad that the German government has issued an official warning to its citizens to use a different browser. France has done the same.
And then there’s the poor web experience. IE6 just can’t handle the modern web. What this means for digital agencies is that we potentially have to limit the user experience to cater for its creakiness – or create two versions. We have so many ideas where the phrase ‘won’t work in IE6’ comes up. These ideas will work fine in Firefox, Safari, Chrome or IE8, but not IE6. So we either have to forget the idea or create two versions: one good one, and one lowest common denominator for IE6. This costs you.
Because it’s so full of bugs and has been patched more than a 10-year-old inner tube, it’s an absolute nightmare to code for. This can also have a knock-on effect for how the site looks and works for all other browsers. Don’t laugh at the poor techies: it’s your budget that goes on this. As much as 10 per cent of the development budget can be spent coding workarounds or alternative versions. Billions of pounds must have been spent on fixing IE6 bugs.
Why is it still in use?
Why do I have to even make this case? If something is that bad surely everyone just picks another browser?
Well there are two reasons: firstly for home users it’s ignorance. Most people don’t even realise this is software, it’s just ‘the Internet’. They don’t know any difference so just don’t upgrade. To me that’s like driving a car without knowing which make it is. ‘What car do you drive?’ ‘Dunno, it’s blue and has four wheels, goes a bit slow.’
Make sure you know better
For B2B marketers it’s the corporate world we are interested in. Corporate world means IT teams who look after your computer. These people know better. They know IE6 is crap. So why then is there still a mind-boggling amount of corporates who still run it as their native browser? Their reasons for this are about it costing too much to upgrade, the time it will take etc etc. These don’t wash much with me. If your job is to provide and run an IT infrastructure for business in the modern world then this is a fundamental part of your job. The browser is probably one of the most used pieces of software in the workplace – if not the most used.
When we plan digital, we want to create a platform for digital communication that’s looking ahead for the next three to five years at least, not having to look back 10. Google has announced it will phase out support for IE6, as it inhibits its innovation. Even Google, with all its money, no longer wants to spend the time trying to find hacks and fixes for this browser.
So marketers here’s how you can help: if you are stuck with IE6, make some noise. Get IT to upgrade you. Don’t settle for excuses; help kill it once and for all.
