For all you web developers out there, I’m sorry. I hate to be the bearer of bad news; but it’s true – you can’t quit optimizing for IE6 yet. Well, if you want to get semantic, you can, but you’re only hurting your client. As much as it pains me to even admit this, too many visitors to the Web are still on IE6. It’s a hairy, ugly, decrepit baby that you just can’t throw out with the bathwater. Not yet.

For those of you not in the know, Internet Explorer 6 is the demon-child of web browsers. It disregards more than a few now-common CSS rules and doesn’t dig transparent png’s. Many minor hacks to the HTML/CSS and an occasional slight compromise in your design can fix most if not all IE6 problems. But we all know “hacks” are like fixing up a car after a wreck: it never again runs like it was meant to. In short: IE6 keeps most sites from being all they could be.

Last year, 37 Signals made waves by dropping support for IE6 for all of their web-based software products. In their eyes this was a logical progression, and you knew they were considering it when they noted that Apple’s MobileMe was no longer supporting IE6 as well. This works for 37 signals, a software company who people turn to for their needs; but it does not work for you Mr. Web Developer. Unless you want to start adding those annoying links at the bottom “This site is best viewed in ______________” (and you don’t really want to do that, do you?), then IE6 is still a necessary evil.

Different reports have average IE6 usage ranging anywhere from 14-31%. I know that for Worthwhile clients, the average lands right around 23%. So let’s be clear: Dumping IE6 optimization/support would be giving nearly 1 out of 4 visitors to our clients’ sites a poor experience. Well, as you can guess that’s not an option.

What about your site(s)? Have you ever dug through your Google Analytics (Dashboard > Visitors > Browser Capabilities > Browsers) to see exactly what people are using to look you up? You need to. And for all of my fellow developers-in-crime, let’s get real for a second. Throwing out IE6, at least right now, is pure ego and nothing more. You build sites for clients to serve their clients. The user should be your goal. . . Not the prettiest website imaginable . . . Not the least frustrating development experience possible . . . The user.

And as long as a good deal of them are still viewing your clients sites in IE6, you ought to be, too.

P.S. If you’re reading this in IE6: PLEASE do something! (You can do something here, here, here, or here.)