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 Many developers and web designers would like to dismiss Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). It requires a lot of time for compatibility issues, and it seems to dismiss many other browser's "best practices". With the introduction to Google Chrome, the IE 6 statistics have been dropping. When reviewing our company's site statistics, we have noted that 25% of our visitors are using Internet Explorer. Out of that 25%, only 6% uses IE6.

With usage statistics like this, why are we still doing IE6 Browser testing? The developers and designers who want to dismiss this have a valid argument. It simply takes too much time for the insignificant percentage that use that browser. IE6 is notorious for displaying pages differently than ALL other browsers. 

This was a big deal even as recent as a few years ago. At about the time of the release of Windows XP, came Internet Explorer 6. With 5 years of Windows users adding IE6 to their computers, the numbers increased significantly. Even when Vista came out, many windows users preferred XP because they considered Vista to be too buggy (or they heard their techie nephew tell them that). So here were millions of users world-wide using an out-dated version of Internet Explorer simply because they didn't know better.

Currently Google is combatting this by prompting everyone who goes to Google.com to install their browser, Google Chrome. The most wonderful thing about this is that it is helping regular web surfers to REALIZE that they are using out-dated software, or at least to realize that there are other options to browse the web.

In addition to this, Google has also distributed messages to it's Google Apps users informing them that they will no longer be supporting IE6.

In the past, I have worked next to a customer service representative for a local dial-up internet provider. Over-hearing the conversations that go on with this person open a lot of realizations. First, most 'average' people out there don't know the difference between Windows (the operating system) and Internet Explorer (the web browser). Granted the term 'average' is swinging towards a more technologically inclined group of people, but there are still way more people than we expect who wouldn't know the difference.

So this creates the question: "Why IE6?"

The best way to answer this is to know your audience. If you are designing a website for a corporation, particularly one that does not allow it's employees to download software updates or install new programs, then you probably should create the site with IE6 in mind. Chances are the employees are stuck in an old version, wether they like it or not, so people within the company that would be approving of the website may be using IE6 to view your masterpiece.

Another consideration is the location of your audience. If you expect that they will consist of users in a rural area where they may not have access to the latest and fastest internet speeds, it might be wise to assume that they may not be up-to-date on their software as well.

According to W3Schools' browser statistics, 10% of the internet audience is still using Internet Explorer 6. If nothing else, at least open the website in IE6 when you are done styling it to make sure it isn't completely broken. PNG fixes and hover issues are much more easy to fix than layout issues, so before showing a client, at least check the layout in IE6. If the layout is right, the client will more likely be understanding about other issues not looking exactly the same.