Internet Explorer 6 - Why is it outdated?

Internet Explorer 6 was first released in 2001 and received its last major update in 2004. Although it was a far more successful browser than its predecessor it has received a lot of criticism, specifically regarding the support of web standards and security. It has now been superseded by Internet Explorer 7.

What does this mean?

When creating a complex web site special considerations have to be given to Internet Explorer 6 to ensure that the site looks the same as it does with newer browsers. Unfortunately this often means making sacrifices, giving up some of the newer features for backward compatibility.

We spend a great deal of time ensuring that any web content we create is accessible to as many of our visitors as possible, but as technology progresses this becomes increasingly more difficult and some of our pages may not display correctly.

Using a modern browser is a good solution to this, upgrading to a newer browser will mean that you will be able to view newer Web Pages as they were intended to be viewed by their publishers. Running an up-to-date browser will also give you greater protection against security threats, as many new browsers include several features designed to protect you while you browse.

Taking the above points into consideration we have decided to officially recommend a later browser to all our site visitors running Internet Explorer 6.0.

What are my options?

There are several options to choose from:

Internet Explorer 7

If you are running a legitimate version of Windows XP you can download Internet Explorer 7 directly from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx.

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is available to download from the Mozilla website at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/.

Opera 9

Like Firefox, Opera is available for users running Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It can be downloaded from the Opera website here http://www.opera.com/browser/download/.

Safari

Safari, developed by Apple, is available for both Windows and Mac OS X on their website here http://www.apple.com/safari/.

If you would like to know more about each browser there is a great deal of information available on each of the browser?s respective websites. For an in depth comparison of the different browsers Wikipedia has a detailed article on the Comparison of Web Browsers.