How to help users get a better browsing experience?

Question

As I found out today, it looks like YouTube is going to stop supporting IE6 pretty soon.

This begs the question, should we, as applications builders, be the ones that are helping our users to get a better Internet experience?

Should we, like Google, provide messages to users with outdated browsers?

Should we be explaining to them what the advantages are to upgrading?

I understand we cannot force them to do anything and it would be tough to decide what makes something out of date. However, it seems that this would be a two-fold win. We get to develop better applications for newer browsers and we don't have to spend so much time making new and exciting things work in older crappy browsers.

Are there any other big name sites already doing this?

Answer 1

I'm in favor of messages saying "you have IE, please update to something decent"... but if you're making websites for a company, it's sure that no one will let you do this, unless you're working at Google or Mozilla.

In the meantime, graceful degradation is my solution. I code for the latest browsers and I hack to get IE6 to work.

Answer 2

Often times the user works at a company that does not allow them to install software so bothering them about upgrading from IE 6 is pointless and needlessly aggravating them. Everyone knows that IE 6 is really not a great browser for developers (or many would argue users too) but a lot of people still use it. If your target audience doesn't really use it then maybe you can get away with bugging them about upgrading. But the question is do you really not want their money or their time on your site? You're risking that by asking them to upgrade. If you're making a product that you sell it doesn't really make a lot of sense to make them feel unwelcome on your site.

Answer 3

As developers and good citizens of the web, I feel it is our responsibility to courtiously educate others about the virtues of modern browsers.

IE6, and many other outdated browsers contain security holes that lead to computers infested with malware and increase the overall evil and spam on the web. Users trust developers not to hurt them, and it is our duty help our users get the best and safest experiences out of our products. Pointing out the security and functional virtues of modern browsers to our users only helps these aims.

Answer 4

Which applications? If your apps are for use by companies, or people working at companies, then you need to support IE 6 so it's usable. Unfortunately, many companies seem to have intranet apps that require IE 6, and so aren't going to upgrade any time soon. Moreover, a large number of people working for companies are unable to install a better browser, lacking admin rights.

If the target audience is people at home computers, then you can try to nudge people off IE 6. Provide some links (i.e., to Firefox, Opera, Chrome, later versions of IE 6, whatever), making one link more obvious, so people who don't know the first thing about different browsers will have a default choice. Bear in mind that there are a lot of people (including me) who are very unlikely to change browsers just to use your site.