Five by Five

This is a bit of a followup to my post in July about ‘Standards still on the horizon’. Given that according to some figures IE6 still commands about 36% of browser market share is it reasonable to stop supporting the browser given such a high percentage of potential users. The answer in my mind was a resounding no - it’s a simple numbers game. However after having read an article yesterday on Sitepoint I’m no longer convinced that argument is so simple.

This article suggests that perhaps a high percentage of traffic that is atributed to IE6 could in fact be bots masquerading as IE6. SPAM and malicious bots could conceivably represent a high volume of traffic on the internet and as such could well be skewing the IE6 browser share. Of course the other numbers still hold true, with corporate users and users unable to upgrade for whatever reason still commanding a high enough percentage of the market to still support the browser.

Food for thought though!

Peter Horan, CEO of Goodmail, thinks so: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20178.asp

Given our pioneering role in this area, we’re naturally excited by the possibility of video’s return to the inbox. Back in 2001/2002, we launched Trailermail. With this, we were able to put our clients’ video content into their emails without causing security/blocking issues. Unfortunately ‘progress’ in the form of browser and inbox updates brought an end to Trailermail around 2006.

ISPs are a notoriously tough bunch so, Peter, the best of luck with your negotiations. I salute you!