Internet Explorer 6 is dying. Microsoft makes cake and merchandise to celebrate

After a decade, usage of decade-old IE6 in the US has dropped below 1%.  This is now what Microsoft wants: they really does want it to die, making cakes, t-shirts and mugs to celebrate it's final steps towards the grave.

The Redmond-based company made a website in March 2011 to countdown the last few percent of usage, called (rather appropriately) IE6 Countdown.  Since then, usage has dropped to 7.7%, down 12% since the launch of the countdown.  One statistic that isn't particularly clear though: is this to upgrade to the likes of IE8 or 9, or is a jump of ship to competitors' browsers?

Recent statistics show that the overall marketshare for Internet Explorer is continuing to decline, meaning that this whole effort to speed up the death of IE6 maybe working against the brand reputation of the browser, prompting consumers and businesses alike to look at different options.  We can't speak for everyone, especially for the IE6 1%; but Chrome's pretty nifty.

Source: IE6 Countdown, The Windows Blog