There’s always been a push to get people to utilize the latest browser versions – and usually the biggest push comes when one of the big guys drops support for an older browser. Today older versions of Internet Explorer seem to be getting kicked to the curb by Bing & Google.
In a post on G+ Google announced that they will no longer support Internet Explorer 9 within the Google Adwords dashboard.
We want to provide you with the best AdWords experience possible. To do so, we focus on optimizing AdWords for the most recent versions of your web browser. On June 30, 2014, AdWords will no longer support Internet Explorer 9. If you use IE9 to access AdWords, we recommend you upgrade to the most recent version of IE or any of these supported web browsers to avoid a loss in AdWords functionality.
Bing hasn’t made any official announcements; however users of IE8 are noticing the following message appear when logging into their Bing Ads dashboard:
Bing Ads no longer supports Internet Explorer 8. Check to see if you can update your browser version.
Considering that IE8 market share is under 6% and falling rapidly – this shouldn’t be much of an issue – however Windows XP users are stuck with using IE8 unfortunately. And even worse they’re probably not using it by force. The majority of existing Windows XP users are organizations and companies who are essentially forcing their staff to utilize out-dated software. Hopefully this gives them a kick in the arse.
Yes! I was a bit surprised to learn this news, since XP users are still on IE8. However, as you said, it’s probably part of a push toward getting users onto newer platforms.