Dropping IE6: Closing a Sad Chapter in Web History
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
After a recent meeting, we finally made the decision to drop support for Internet Explorer 6.0 and its predecessors (IE 5.5, IE 5.0, and IE 4.0). The browser was loosed onto the world on August 27, 2001, shortly after the release of Windows XP. Security firm Secunia lists 142 vulnerabilities, 20 of which are listed as moderately critical. In May 2006, PC World rated Internet Explorer 6 the eighth worst tech product of all time. But the decision to block the browser from our website was not related to security concerns, rather it was strictly to do with its rendering. IE 6.0 consistently broke our layout, and failed to support a number of common protocols that all modern browsers are capable of handling.
If you are one of our very few visitors that still uses this ancient and deprecated browser, you will be greeted with this screen. (Based on our data, less than 1.2 percent run IE 6.0, and no visitors were found to be running IE 5.5 or lower.)
We feel a great weight has lifted off our shoulders. Internet Explorer 6.0 has been around for nearly a decade. It’s about time we here at Szilveszter.ca help put a nail in that coffin. We hope that the one percent of our visitors takes this news as a sign to improve their lives and upgrade to a modern browser. Both Firefox and Safari are two solid choices that adhere to web standards and provide unparalleled security.
Addendum: Interestingly enough, it appears we are not alone. It looks like YouTube and Digg are pushing for the same thing. Why IE Sucks chronicles this and more.
301 Redirects Using .htaccess to Improve SEO
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
Skip to the break if you just came here to learn about 301 redirects. I frequently check my server logs, looking for problems with my site. But a constant worry are 404s. I belong to several bulletin boards and frequently upload content to a temporary storage repository found on my server. Themes, icons, graphical changes to popular programs and most of what I upload, I don’t often add to my website. Why? Because, quite frankly, I’m too lazy. I also don’t see much worth in packing my portfolio with titbits, or odds and ends. But every now and again, I do manage to put up content and not being one to leave duplicates on my server, pull it from the storage repository mentioned earlier. Sadly, this leaves the links on the boards orphaned. I do go in and try to modify the links, but I’d rather spend my time doing, you know, fun stuff. Yet my concern for my visitors (yes, I love you guys; group hug!) is always lurking, and I don’t want them to be greeted with the dreaded 404: Not Found. So I started to employ 301 permanent redirects.
