In web years, 2001 is the equivalent of a century ago — or at least it feels like it. Back in 2001, Microsoft released version 6 of its market-leading Internet browser, Internet Explorer. Yet somehow, 11 years later, it’s still difficult to shake this old browser loose.

Microsoft moved on long ago. They’re already on version 9 of IE, but because the company waited so long between updates (IE 7 didn’t emerge until 2006), IE 6 took hold in many enterprises and organizations, as vendors and IT departments built proprietary software that was compatible only with IE 6. This lengthened its life considerably.

But enough is enough. After launching an aggressive campaign to upgrade IE users to a more recent version of IE, Microsoft celebrated the news that IE 6 market share is now down to less than one percent. Roger Capriotti, director of Internet Explorer marketing, shares the good news on the Windows Blog:

IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we’ve been as eager as anyone to see it go away. In fact, we launched the IE6 Countdown site last March to help accelerate the process. Less than a year later, I’m thrilled to say that the United States has joined the ranks of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway in dropping below 1% usage of IE6. In addition, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Ukraine, Portugal and the Philippines are also entering the Champions’ Circle. We hope this means more developers and IT Pros can consider IE6 a “low-priority” at this point and stop spending their time having to support such an outdated browser.

Read more about the end days of IE 6 on the Windows Blog.