As time goes on, new features are added to the standards for website development. What this means is that older web browsers will not work with websites that use the newer widgets. At some point website developers have to simply drop support for older browsers in order to keep up with the times on their websites. Google recently announced that they will no longer support IE6 (Internet Explorer version 6) after March 1, 2010.
There are also security vulnerabilities that are discovered in older web browsers, and although the browser manufacturers like Microsoft or Mozilla come out with updates, it becomes more and more difficult for them to update the older browsers. Plus, there are some really nice features that have become available in the newer browsers, such as tabbed windows.
If you want the best web browsing experience, it would be a good idea to update to the latest browser, unless there is some reason why you must stay with the older version. There are several browsers to choose from. We prefer Firefox, which can be downloaded here (look for the download button in the right column). There’s are add-ons for Firefox that allows you to view a webpage using the IE rendering engine from within a Firefox window (look here or here) for the site that have been written to run only on Microsoft products (shame on them!). If you’re running on a PC, and insist on using Internet Explorer, you can get downloads for Internet Explorer v8 here, or V7 here. If you’re going for the V7 version, look for the “Get Internet Explorer 7 in the middle column, with the “Select your operating system” dropdown menu — right under the really obvious Internet Explorer 8 “Download Now” button.
There are other browsers to choose from as well of course:
- Apple’s Safari, which will run on Windows as well
- Opera
- Google’s Chrome
- and probably many others.