According to an article in Mashable, Internet Explorer 6 now has such low market share that it has become a relic.

Now many readers would say, duh, I’ve been using IE8 for months. But that’s not the case with many corporations. In fact two of my clients still use IE6. Why? Because it’s the standard and upgrading an entire corporation takes time and planning.

The problem is that with a browser this ancient, there is no longer any support which means when websites can’t be viewed properly or other problems arise, there is no one to turn to.

Of course it could be argued that IE6 has suffered from this problem since its inception. This was a browser that always required special programming and which was plagued with holes and bugs.

So maybe it is time to let it rest in peace. But to all you corporate IT departments out there, better make that transition before it takes its last breath.

According to web analytics company StatCounter, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 is now truly a relic of the past with less than 5% of market share in the U.S. and Europe.

For years, IE6 caused headaches for developers and prompted many users to switch to alternative browsers. It was full of security holes and it broke nearly every web standard in the book.

Since it was the default browser on many Windows () machines, it was also the dominant browser in the early aughts, reaching 90% market share in 2002 and 2003. Unfortunately, it outstayed its welcome by a good five years, keeping a solid chunk of the market even after Internet Explorer () 7 and 8 were released.

Now, based on an analysis of 15 billion page views in May 2010, StatCounter’s numbers indicate that IE6 usage in the U.S. has fallen to 4.7% from 11.5% in the last 12 months, meaning that IE6 is finally becoming a footnote in the history of the Internet ().