August 14, 2008
Way back in 1995 Microsoft gave us Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). As web technologies have evolved over those 13 years, IE6 did not. During that time, international standards for web sites were developed that provided for the separation of web page content and the way it's presented. People became more aware of designing web pages so they would be accessible to people with disabilities. The use of cascading styles sheets and page layout without the use of tables has become the preferred method of page coding. The web has changed but IE6 has not and much of today's technology is not well supported by IE6. IE6 does not display web pages as intended by the designer without great angst, frustration, and time consuming coding to accomodate the users of IE6. Even today, with the availability of IE7, Firefox 3, Opera 9, and Safari, about one third of the people using the internet are still using IE6.
It's time to give your old, albiet familiar, IE6 the boot. Don't do it just to satisfy the web designers either. Do it because all the browsers mentioned above are faster, more secure, and much more standards compliant. Once you learn your new browser, you'll have a much better experience on the web.
Why do I write about this now when so many other people have written about it before? Because now NASA's Earth Science Office is in the process of redesigning their website that displays the GOES weather satellite imagery. The newly designed site will use modern web design technology IE6 does not support. If you use IE6, visit their site and you'll see a notice to this effect with a recommendation to switch to a newer browser. If you don't use IE6, you won't see this message because you're already capable of taking advantage of the new site when it's launched.
The sad fact is most web sites don't tell IE6 users that they are not seeing the page correctly and they'll never know what they're missing. In many cases, the kind people who code the web sites you visit do their best to use rather exotic coding techniques so IE6 users can get by. I for one am not content to just get by and I hope you want more out of life than that too.
So do your part to make the web a better place. Dump IE6 for one of the better browsers. You'll be glad you did. By the way, did I mention they're all free.