Google advises users to drop IE6 for Chrome or Firefox
As a Firefox user who loves the added security, features, and speed I enjoy with my browser of choice, I find it strange that people still choose Microsoft Internet Explorer over Firefox or one of the other better alternatives out there. One of those alternatives is Chrome, which Google is now heavily promoting.
The business of Web browsers is a strange one. We all use them to access and explore the Internet yet for the most part they take a very natural backseat to the actual sites and activities we use them to reach. Which is why most people still stick with what they know best, or at least what comes bundled with their computer: Internet Explorer. If only more people would download and try other browsers, they’d soon realize that there is no longer a need to stick with Microsoft.
Love it or hate it, Google is slowly taking over, offering cut down and user-friendly versions of software and services innovated by other companies. And its new Chrome browser is no exception to this trend. Newly out of beta, Google is now starting to promote Chrome as the browser of choice, although Firefox also sneaks in there due to a longstanding friendship between Google and Mozilla.
As soon as Chrome launched in beta, there was a link added to the main Google Search page, and that is now a direct download link. Google also has links and adverts pointing users towards Chrome on YouTube and within its AdSense program.
Now, according to TG Daily, Google is also utilizing Gmail in an effort to gain users from Microsoft. Internet Explorer 6 is now no longer listed as a Gmail supported browser, although the current IE7 is. Instead, Gmail users are advised to upgrade to either Firefox or Chrome.
One in five people are estimated to have accessed the Web using IE6 during the closing months of 2008, which means there is a vast pool of people out there waiting (and in urgent need) to upgrade to a newer and faster browser. Two out of every three Internet users who decide to leave the clutches of Microsoft currently switch to Firefox, meaning Google has a huge fight on its hands to grab any kind of market share.
Is it slightly grubby of Google to suddenly drop support of IE6 in order to build user ship of its own browser? Probably. But then the end result is a good one, preventing Microsoft from keeping their huge majority share of the browser market and opening it up to better alternatives.
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January 2nd, 2009
I agree with google that it’s way past the time to ditch IE. In my opinion, it’s the most inefficiently written and least secure browser out there, so I don’t see why it still has the majority of the market share.
What google is neglecting to mention, however, are browsers that they did not develop or assist in developing. There are many other great browsers out there too like Opera, SeaMonkey, and Safari.
January 2nd, 2009
Many of us by corporate mandate have no choice Dave. Plus, thousands of web sites are coded to the peculiarities of IE6 and either don’t work at all or are crap in any other browser. I’d like to be rid of IE completely, but that’s a long time off.
January 2nd, 2009
Whenever I hit a website that only renders correctly with IE or the media is Windows format
I send a comment to the webmaster and whoever is listed under “contact us” that might be relevant. I’ve only used IE after an install of Windows to download FF or Opera and for Windows update.
January 3rd, 2009
I have to use IE8 as a lot of things will not use Firefox for updates, etc. I tried to kill it as it is beta, but could not go back to IE7…had to reformat the drive as it let in something that hollowed out my folders that got worse as time past regardless of what I tried. Lately, Firefox is crashing for no reason. Chrome is worse in I couldn’t update anything, couldn’t get it to search correctly, and couldn’t get it to uninstall so I could try it again. But that may have been from the problem of IE8 beta…
January 3rd, 2009
Google is turning up the heat on Mozilla too. I use SeaMonkey as a browser. When I tried to upgrad Google Earth it tried to uninstall Sea Monkey. I didn’t upgrade.
September 21st, 2009
Right now 9 mths later google mail works fine in ie6
what happened?