San Diego, CA (PRWEB) - In 2011, Microsoft officially said goodbye to Internet Explorer 6 and even started their own corporate website monitoring the worldwide usage of IE6. According to the website, only 0.9% of the Internet users in the US are still using IE6. Bop Design, a San Diego website design agency with clients throughout the US, contends that this is good news for web developers. Jordan Paraso, Bop Design Director of Web Development, says, "I’m sure many web designers and developers are smiling about this statistic." Microsoft has also stated that the official end of Extended support for IE6 is on April 8, 2014. That date is also the same day that the Extended supports ends for Windows XP.
In late 2011, Microsoft stated in a blog that in 2012, they will start automatically upgrading Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer via Windows Upgrade. Paraso states, "This is huge news for the future and the progress of the Internet. Since Windows XP users will be encouraged to upgrade to IE8 and Windows Vista/7 users will be encouraged to upgrade to IE9." With this transition, the question arises, do web developers still need to develop for IE7?
According to W3Counter, global usage of IE7 during January 2012 was 5.93%. Bop Design suggests that based on current web browser statistics and Microsoft’s efforts to encourage their customers to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer, it appears safe for web developers to stop developing for IE7. Paraso maintains, "The browser statistics for IE7 are only going to decrease every month. Unless the client absolutely needs the website to work in IE7, developing a website for IE7 compatibility is development time that could be better spent elsewhere."
The phasing out of IE 6 and IE 7 has made it easier for all web developers. Paraso elaborates, "Developing for IE7 usually isn't as bad as IE6, but there are still challenges. Most of the time, IE7 will behave as expected if the HTML and CSS are coded to W3C Standards. But there are those certain CSS elements and jQuery scripts that gives IE7 fits. On some sites it can take just a few minutes to fix, other sites it can take hours. Sometimes it even requires that hacks be used to get things to work."
Bop Design recommends that web developers consider developing only for the top web browsers: Chrome 16, IE 8 & 9, and Firefox 9.
About Bop Design, San Diego and New Jersey Web Design
Bop Design is a boutique marketing communications firm headquartered in San Diego with offices also in New Jersey. The marketing agency expresses a business' values through web design, branding, advertising and print design. They also help attract a firm's ideal customer through search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Bop Design's focus is on small businesses that want an external team of marketing specialists to help give their brand an edge in the marketplace.