Although Internet Explorer 7 and the newly release Internet Explorer 8 have made progress in replacing the infamous Internet Explorer 6, there are still about 30% of users who still use it globally, and depending on your audience, that number could even be larger.
84% of DebonStudio.com visitors are using Internet Explorer, with roughly half of them being IE6. So 42% of the total visits are done using Internet Explorer 6. Compare this with the W3C School website, where almost 50% of visitors are using Firefox (IE6 users amount to only 15%).
A word about IE5.5 and earlier versions
I don’t worry too much anymore about IE5.5 and earlier versions. They are now representing such a tiny share of the browsers market that they can be safely ignored. But if you really, really, really want to accommodate these browsers, this page goes through the IE5.5 and earlier browsers bugs.
Because of the enormous competition from websites for user attention, it is vital to have the best exposure to attract your audience. Although there are over 3000 search engines, 95% of the business in the US comes from only 4 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, AOL & MSN). The search engine rating game is subtle and complicated. Each search engines has different rating criteria. (Criteria that are constantly changing.) Search engines check six principles when deciding how high to rate a site. Your ability to gain high ratings for your site depends on creating your site to rate well in those six criteria.