WordPress drops IE6 support

WordPress will no longer support Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), an executive from the company announced today.

Jane Wells, UX lead for WordPress, confirmed it would no longer offer support for the aging browser that even Microsoft itself is trying to encourage users way from.

Even Microsoft is counting down to IE6s extinction!

"[IE6] has required increasingly complex code trickery to make the WordPress dashboard work in the IE6 browser, which was introduced 10 years ago and does not support current web standards," she wrote in a blog post.

"Even Microsoft is counting down to IE6s extinction!"

WordPress has made it easy to upgrade though, building in its own link to download Microsoft's up-to-date browser IE9 and Wells encouraged users, for both aesthetic reasons and safety concerns, to move with the times.

"While we were [looking at IE6], we started looking at other older browsers, and it makes us cringe a little when we see people using them, because the web could be so much better for them (not to mention more secure) if they would update to their favorite browser's current version," she added.

As a result, WordPress has also incorporated a feature which will show users of any old browsers links to the upgrade and a link to the Browse Happy website to "learn a little more about your options."

In May last year, Microsoft compared IE6 to spoiled milk and admitted security features had become "out-dated."

It has even launched a countdown site to show the dwindling numbers of IE6 users and to encourage more to upgrade.