It's been a while since we've posted about browser usage, specifically regarding Internet Explorer 6.

Well, IE 6 - and Internet Explorer in general - have been in the news a bit lately. First, Internet Explorer overall is losing browser market share. There are now several great alternative browsers available. Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome are all excellent options that are being pursued by other customers and web users in general. In the last four years, IE's market share has dropped from over 90% to 68%, with the rate of decline accelerating each year due to the introduction of these excellent alternatives.

Second, Google (with their Gmail application), Facebook, and a host of other Web applications have either dropped official support for, or did not release any new features supported in, IE6 in the last year. These recommendations reflect what we at salesforce.com are seeing as well: as a "last generation" browser that will be 8 years old in a few months, IE 6 has fallen far behind other browsers with regard to speed, stability, and security. Of the browsers we support, IE 6 provides the worst user experience for our users on all of these fronts.

At this point, we want to urge all users who are still using IE 6 to consider one of the following changes (in ranked order):

• Option 1: If you have the necessary permissions on your computer, install and use a browser other than Internet Explorer
  Salesforce officially supports Mozilla Firefox 3.0.x and Apple Safari 3.x.  And while not officially supported, Google Chrome 1.0 seems to work extremely well with our service. All of these browsers are much more standards compliant than Internet Explorer, all are much quicker, and new releases of these browsers - overall - have historically had minimal issues.

• Option 2: If you have the necessary permissions, but you don't want to give up on IE, upgrade to Internet Explorer 7
  IE 7 is faster, more reliable, and better supported by Microsoft than IE 6.

• Option 3: If you don't have any control over the programs installed on your computer, talk with your IT department about switching to a different browser
  We know we have a wide variety of customers - everything from 3-person companies in a garage to multi-national corporations - and understand that many of you have no choice in which browser you use at work. Start engaging the appropriate people in your company now to improve your user experience with Web-based applications.

Please note that we still fully support IE 6 for the features we have today, and will continue to support it through 2009; we will give ample notice to all of our customers before we pursue officially de-supporting IE 6. However, as we release more functionality and features this year, you will begin to see new UI enhancements that will not be fully supported on IE 6.

We want our users to have the fastest, most reliable experience possible every day, and transitioning from IE 6 to a faster and better supported browser - as soon as possible - is a great way to ensure that.

Share and Enjoy.