Google has recently announced that it will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) for it's popular web apps. They are starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 2010 key functionality within these products, as well as new Docs and Sites features, won’t work properly in older browsers.
Later in 2010, Google will start to phase out support for IE6 for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google is not the first to stop supporting this incredibly old browser. Other service like YouTube dropped support for IE6 earlier.
Should your Joomla site support IE6
Many of the most popular Joomla Template Clubs continually have to fight and patch and work around IE6. This causes inflated development times and in some cases a lot of code bloat. RocketTheme is no longer supporting IE6 starting this year. We believe many more template companies will follow soon.
Their move to ignore IE6 is an important one. Your web site visitors may continue to use IE6 because they simply are unaware they are using an obsolete browser or afraid of upgrading. Look at your site statistics. See how many people are still viewing your site in Internet Explorer and how many of them are using IE6 instead of IE7 or IE8. And check how the IE6 usage develops over time.
Web developers and designers are still attempting to make sites work with this old browser for this small minority of visitors.
How to decide on IE6 support for Joomla
Eventually you will have to decide for yourself if you choose to support IE6 or not. You might want to check how your site is doing in IE6 first:
- In Windows: Check your site in IE 6, IE7 and IE8 with Final Builds Site - Internet Explorer Collection.
You can run multiple versions of Internet Explorer with it. - In Mac OSX: Adobe BrowserLab will help you take screenshots from your site in multiple browsers.
For the technically skilled users: a very reliable way is to use a Virtual Machine for various builds.
How to tell your visitors your Joomla Site does not support IE6
Yootheme.com offers an easy and free module, YOOiecheck, to be used in both Joomla 1.0 and Joomla 1.5, which detects if a user is visiting your website using IE6.
A small message will fade in which calls the user attention and informs him that his browser is outdated. This message can be edited through the module configuration. Also the message includes recommendation links to the download section of most modern browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer 7.
Need Help With Any Browser Related Question For Joomla?
We can help you fix the browser compatibility of your Joomla site, including IE6, IE7 and IE8, and validate the HTML and CSS for you: Submit a Joomla Support Request.
