If you frequent the Prototype Advertising office, you may have been unlucky enough to witness the raw, savage rage of one of our web developers as they attempt to get their finely crafted website working in Internet Explorer 6. They’ve even been known to revert to primal tendencies (see the photo for proof!).
Much like our friends in college football, we each wear one IE6 patch on our coat sleeve for each website that we have successfully styled in IE6 without major modification to the layout. Let me tell you, it’s embarrassing too but fortunately people don’t expect developers to be very stylish. This January though we’ll be hanging up those war torn coats up for good.
Starting January 1, 2010 Prototype Advertising will no longer offer IE6 coding as part of our standard web development package. We will still offer IE6 compatibility coding as an additional service upon specific request (for an additional fee).
The final release of Internet Explorer 6 was in 2001 and the final security update was released in in 2008 with Windows XP SP3. Microsoft has acknowledged that they will likely cease supporting IE6 in 2014. With it’s dated architecture and code handling (even admitted by Microsoft), IE6 really leaves a lot to be desired from a design and development standpoint. Things that are simple in newer browsers are often difficult if not impossible to achieve in IE6. Since Prototype Advertising always strives to be creative and unique with our designs and layouts, often times we find ourselves painted into the proverbial corner when at project completion we view our once beautiful website in Internet Explorer 6 only to realize our fine art now looks mangled and unsightly. IE6 costs our development team hundreds of hours a year that we could be using to create more features on your website, make your site more search engine friendly, add additional support and detail graphics or just to put that final touch of creativity into the artwork of your website design. We choose to move forward!
We’ve teamed up with a growing group of companies that are putting Internet Explorer 6 in the bag (and then tying that bag – duct taping it – kicking it a couple times – locking it in a chest – and throwing that chest in the sea). You can visit www.ie6nomore.com for more information about the movement by developers to get users up to date on their internet browsers.
So, as a current or potential future client of Prototype’s, you may be asking yourself… so what will happen if someone comes to my website with Internet Explorer 6? Will they just see nothing? Absolutely not! It is still in our very best interest to make sure that your website viewers are taken care of. They will still be able to access the website (although it may not look it’s best) and will be presented with this banner at the top of their browser window which includes easy to use links where they can upgrade their current browser.
So long IE6… time to move to Florida, buy an RV and live out the rest of your days on the golf course good friend. (that is, if you can get out of that bag we stuck you in)
