Have you ever watched a Cowboy game on an old television?
This is a great comparison of browsing the web from an outdated browser such as Internet Explorer 6. Of course you would prefer to watch football from a HDTV LCD or plasma television. The difference in quality is tremendous.
It is crazy how folks like myself get so flustered with small details in life. While I worked for Verizon and Idearc Media in Dallas it bugged me that my company laptop only offered Internet Explorer 6 as a browser. The company apparently did not see the financial benefits in upgrading to a new standard web browser (good thing SalesForce.com’s application works fine on IE6, since they are now using this as the official “sales prospecting” tool at Idearc.)
Today’s web applications are demanding more capabilities.
The reason web sites designed by Idearc Media and other yellow page companies look so terrible [ex: http://www.allactionftworthcarpetcleaning.com] is because they are built for IE6 compatibility (and they spend about as much time and talent building your site as the profit margins allow, about 3-5 hours max!)
A short list of things IE6 does not support, of which coders probably know them all:
– CSS v2 (Cascading Style Sheets): This is the code that enables almost all design on the web. In other words, designers have to hack up websites just to make them load in IE6.
– PNG Transparency: A great deal of .png images don’t display correctly in IE6. It basically kills using them in design work.
– General Security: Just like not updating your virus software can get you riddled with spyware, not updating your browser can be a gateway to attacks. There are even code snippets that will shut down IE6. I won’t tell you what they are, but you can find them on Wikipedia. It’s unstable.
– Digg (Digg), Facebook (Facebook), and YouTube (YouTube) (soon): Both Digg and YouTube have announced that they’re cutting back on IE6 support. Facebook already gives you suggestions for better browsers if you try to log in with IE6. You won’t be able to Digg articles or browse YouTube via IE6 in the near future.
Here are my real-time Dallas Web Browser Statistics (if you have a site built by a Yellow Pages company don’t expect this kind of information as they don’t see value in measuring your sites analytics and activity).
With these types of web site statistics, or analytics, you are able to measure and then manage your website.
and taking a closer look at the Internet Explorer browser version statistics:
Based on this information, I think it is time to officially put IE6 (and your antiquated Yellow Pages built company website) in the grave.
Don’t hold back your website. Don’t build your site to be IE6 compatible. Your site needs to be able to progress. IE6 compatible website content management systems are not website plugin friendly. They are not compatible with social media applications and embeds. I find it interesting that my former employer, Idearc Media, who going in the direction of cloud computing with SalesForce.com, but does not see the value in utilizing other open-source website development tools. Open-source is continually upgradable. It saves companies money in my opinion. When developing websites I will offer clients either Joomla, Drupal, or WordPress content management systems. Not the antiquated templates that Idearc allows you to choose from. Also if you do go with an upgradeable CMS you get the benefit of easier SEO and a much cooler looking website.
Take a look at a site that we built for a friend of mine Dawn Roberts at the Roberts Law Firm in Fort Worth (click here). The site cost much less than the one that Idearc built for the carpet cleaner in Fort Worth (click here) but looks 100x’s better!
It is time to upgrade your website before the web passes you up. After all, you wouldn’t watch a Dallas Cowboys football game from a tube tv?
Dallas SEO & PPC Google Advertising Expert Mike Stewart 
Website design is a tough task to succeed at. You have to be sure to think about search engine optimization and user friendliness along with clean development. Thank you for this blog its very helpful.