Microsoft celebrates death of IE6

Usage down to just one per cent in the United States

Microsoft's seemingly eternal quest to rid the world of Internet Explorer 6 is nearing completion with the company announcing that usage is down to just one per cent in the United States.

The company has been on a self-deprecating mission to force users into upgrading into newer versions of the browser.

Now the campaign has almost reached its conclusion according to a Microsoft blog post, which showed employees celebrating the demise with a specially decorated cake.

Champions circle
"IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we've been as eager as anyone to see it go away. I'm thrilled to say that the United States has joined the ranks of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway in dropping below 1% usage of IE6," said head of IE marketing Roger Capriotti.

"In addition, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Ukraine, Portugal and the Philippines are also entering the Champions Circle. We hope this means more developers and IT Pros can consider IE6 a "low-priority" at this point and stop spending their time having to support such an outdated browser."

Back in 2009, Microsoft famously launched a "friends don't let friends use IE6" campaign and even launched an IE6 deathwatch website last year.

IE6 was first introduced in 2001. The company is now testing the tenth, and much-improved iteration of the browser.

UN fears second global recession

The global economy is at a risk of facing another major downturn, a report has suggested.
The 2012 World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report, which complied by UN economists, said 2012 would be crucial in shaping the economic future.

"The situation in the world is rather grim. We have a situation where we may well be at risk of a double dip. In any case, it is very likely that there will be further slowdown," UN Assistant Secretary-General Jomo Kwame Sundaram said.

It predicted that developing nations, expanding by 5.4 percent in 2012 and 5.8 percent in 2013, would be major drivers of growth, Xinhua reports

The report also said high unemployment, particularly in developed countries, is adversely affecting growth, and added fiscal austerity measures that have been passed in response to high public debt in developed countries were partly responsible for the cause.
 
If there's no more fiscal stimulus there's no other factor that will keep up the demand, particularly in developed countries.