The movement has been growing among savvy Web developers for years, he said, but has hit a groundswell since bigger-name Internet companies jumped aboard. Oliver said his magazine started an anti-IE 6 Web site about three months ago. 'Internet Explorer 8 offers improvements in speed, security and reliability as well as new features designed for the way people use the Web.'

'Microsoft has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to the latest version of our browser,' the company said. In a statement to CNN, Microsoft said it also wants people to turn away from IE 6. That's why there's a big movement of support for it because the geeks out there have known about this for years and have been waiting for big sites to jump on and push it forward.' He added: 'Ultimately, we've kind of waited long enough. is an awful browser and no one should be using it.' The latest version of their browser is a good browser. 'Microsoft makes some fantastic products. 'This isn't an anti-Microsoft campaign,' he said.

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On the surface, the campaign against IE 6 may seem like a cult of disgruntled techies who are angry at Microsoft or want to gripe about people who lag behind the technological curve.īut that analysis is too simplistic, said Dan Oliver, editor of. 'Beyond that, IE 6's support for modern Web standards is very lacking, restricting what developers can create and holding the Web back.'

'As any Web developer will tell you, working with IE 6 is one of the most difficult and frustrating things they have to deal with on a daily basis, taking up a disproportionate amount of their time,' an introduction on the site says. The 'IE 6 No More' site provides Web developers with a piece of code - an online hurdle, essentially - they can install to encourage Internet users to download a new browser before coming back to the site. The most recent site, called 'IE 6 No More,' has gained momentum this week on social-media sites like Twitter and Digg in part because a number of respected Internet start-up companies have signed onto the campaign. In recent months, several Web companies have launched sites devoted to the idea of undermining or killing Internet Explorer 6. They also blame IE 6 for giving webmasters a collective headache, because they have to write special 'hacks' into Web code to accommodate an outmoded browser.Īn estimated 15 to 25 percent of people still use IE 6 as their portal to the Internet, according to two Web monitors. The designers say Internet Explorer 6, which was released in 2001 and since has been updated twice by Microsoft Corp., is crippling the Internet's potential and slowing down the online experience.

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