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Microsoft urges Internet Explorer 6 users to ‘say goodbye’ to the venerable browser, stat

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Microsoft Corp. has posted a new Web page urging the millions around the world who still use its 10-year-old Internet Explorer 6 browser to just stop.

‘It’s time to say goodbye,’ the page says.

‘The web has changed significantly over the past 10 years,’ it continues. ‘The browser has evolved to adapt to new web technologies, and the latest versions of Internet Explorer help protect you from new attacks and threats.’

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Indeed, the page is largely a promotion by Microsoft to get people to upgrade to the much newer Internet Explorer 9, which is debuting now. The new browser has a cleaner look and snappier feel, more like its leaner competitors Firefox and Google Chrome.

Microsoft says only about 12% of global Internet users still use IE6, a 9% drop from last year. The goal is to get that down to less than 1 percent, the company says.

Counting all of its versions, Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser worldwide, now used by more than 50% of Web surfers internationally, according to StatCounter. Firefox is second, with 31.3% of the market, followed by Chrome with about 10%.

The lion’s share of users still employing the decade-old product are in China, where about half of the remaining 12% are using the browser. The U.S. is in a distant second, with about 0.7%, followed by South Korea and India.

Newer versions of Internet Explorer, as well as those of any other browser, are free and relatively easy to download and install. If you’re not sure which version of a browser you have, look for a menu option that says ‘About Internet Explorer,’ or ‘About Firefox,’ somtimes under the ‘Help’ menu.

-- David Sarno

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