Google to phase out IE6 support from March

Search giant says enterprise services won't work properly with IE6

Google advises users to upgrade Internet Explorer from version 6

Search giant Google is phasing out support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 6 (IE6) from 1 March.

Google is advising users of its enterprise services, such as Google Docs, to upgrade to version 7 or 8.

Chinese activists' recent hacking of Gmail accounts, via a vulnerability in the IE browser, has led to Google threatening to withdraw from the Chinese search market.

Following this incident, both the German and French governments advised citizens to switch browsers until Microsoft patched the security hole.

Microsoft patched the hole swiftly, outside of its regular monthly patch Tuesday cycle.

The Department of Health is also concerned about the IE security flaw, and published a technology bulletin authored by the department's Informatics Directorate on 29 January. This advised NHS Trusts using IE6 Windows 2000 or XP to upgrade to version 7.

Google has been threatening to phase out IE6 for more than a year, and in summer 2008 it posted information messages on YouTube stating that the IE6 browser being used to watch video clips from last year would be phased out " soon."