I’m writing a couple of articles about browser testing, browser support, progressive enhancement etc. and as a bit of research I’ve been browsing around to see what opinions there are on issues such as supporting IE6.

Well today I can across a project (http://www.ie6update.com/) which disgusts me. They’re advocating using Conditional Comments and a bit of JavaScript to display a message to Internet Explorer 6 users, telling them that their browser is out of date. That in itself isn’t that bad, but they’re copying the design of the IE information bar, and even using the Windows security shield icon to make it look genuine. The message isn’t a simple ‘Please upgrade’, oh no. It tells the user that their browser is missing updates and they should please click to get them. They are then taken off to the IE8 download page.

So why do I have a problem with this? It’s exactly the same as the tactics used by virus writers, hackers and phishing scammers to trick people into downloading fake anti-virus software and giving them money. I don’t care whether their cause is noble or not, fooling the user into thinking that Windows is advising them to upgrade, when in fact it’s their crappy website is just plain wrong!

If it’s your website and you’ve decided not to support IE6 then by all means display a polite message to the user but don’t deceive them or scare them into doing something they’re not properly informed about.

Better yet make your site work in IE6, if you’re at least half decent at building websites then it’s not that difficult.

UPDATE: looks like I’m not the only one who feels this way, http://audioboo.fm/boos/7486-a-rant-about-ie6-update.

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About the author

Jonathan Phillips is the founder and main author here on Division by Zero. A PHP developer by trade, Jonathan spends his days building and marketing websites and the rest of the time coming up with ideas for websites and businesses he hasn't got time to implement.