If Microsoft could not make Internet Explorer 6  users to upgrade to IE8 Google might actually succeed in doing so. And what could be a better way of forcing users to let go of the old IE6 web browser? – By disabling YouTube support. But Google is not doing this to make IE6 users upgrade to IE8 but rather to a more advance browser which could either be Google’s own Chrome browser, IE8, Opera Mini 10, Safari 4 and Firefox 3.6.

So if you’re still using IE6 and try to visit YouTube, you will see a message prompting you that you are using an older browser and that while you may still enjoy watching videos, after March 13, YouTube will stop supporting it. And unless you upgrade to newer browsers you will no longer enjoy new features that will be introduced after the said date. The message will appear for three weeks until you upgrade to a newer browser.

Interestingly, while Microsoft is not really that active and pretty succesful in convincing IE users to upgrade to the latest version, Google’s strategy might actually work. I’m pretty sure majority of these IE6 users will not want to miss out on the good things that YouTube is about to offer in the future.

Another interesting point here, which I think Microsoft should be thankful for is the fact that Google is forcing users to abandon IE6, it is still suggesting IE8 as an alternative browser.

Let’s see whether this strategy will gain Google more users for its Chrome browser  and whether users will finally stop using IE6.

Originally posted on February 23, 2010 @ 5:35 pm