As of Tuesday 3 August 2010, my websites will no longer support Internet Explorer 6 compatibility. That includes The Grapevine.

If you’re viewing this web page through the Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) browser, you will see an advisory at the top asking you to update.  You are strongly urged to do so.

IE6 was released in 2001 and has since been superseded by two newer versions. The latest version is Internet Explorer 8, which you can download for free here.

IE6 has several  key problems:

1. IE6 doesn’t support many common web standards, such as key aspects of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which are integral to most modern websites (including this one).

2. IE6 is extremely susceptible to virus attacks, because of its poor security suite.

3. Microsoft is phasing out support for IE6.

Designing websites that render in all browsers is challenging enough as it is. Designing a website for a decade-old browser is almost impossible!  In recent times Google, Facebook and YouTube have all stopped supporting IE6, and as of 3 August 2010, so have I. According to my web stats, 8% of readers are using IE6 or IE5.

Internet Explorer is free, and will takes less than 5 minutes to update. Of course there are many other great free browsers, such as Firefox, Safari and Opera that you can use as an alternative.

If you’re behind a corporate firewall, please ask your employer to allow you to upgrade.