Twitter ends IE6 and IE7 support on May 13

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 and 7 will now have one more reason to upgrade: Twitter is killing support for the two versions.

 

In a blog post, Twitter's Benjamin Ward said the move stemmed from their need to adjust to the times and write simpler and faster code supported by newer browsers.

 

"New browser technology allows us to write simpler, faster, smaller code. Old technologies fade into obsolescence," Ward said.

 

He said this means that by May 13, Twitter components such as the Tweet button, Follow button, embedded Tweets and timelines "will cease to be initialized in IE6."

 

"The script will detect the unsupported browser and silently exit. The content from the embed codes will remain in place.

Factory functions for the creation of widgets will be defined, but will return false to any callback provided in IE6," he said.

 

Also, Ward said Web Intents Events, the framework allowing developers to respond to user interactions with the widgets, will no longer be supported in IE6 and IE7.

 

He said the two browsers had required heavy shims to pass messages, and Twitter will remove that "to make the library smaller and the events implementation more reliable."

 

While widgets will still be rendered in IE7, IE7 will have limited support and future features may not be implemented.

 

In the meantime, Ward said embed codes in pages will continue to provide functionality to all users and “Tweet” links will share page, while “Follow” links point to users’ profiles.

 

A separate article on The Next Web said Twitter's continuing support for IE8 is "good" as IE8 is the latest IE for Windows XP, Microsoft's aging but still popular 12-year-old OS.

 

"It’s good to see that Twitter is keeping support for IE8. This is the latest version of Microsoft’s browser that Windows XP users can install. Given that XP is still very popular, the company is wise to kill off just IE6 and IE7 support, at least for now," it said. — TJD, GMA News