In spite of its weak security, poor performance, and woeful standards compliance, a lot of people are still using Internet Explorer 6 as their Web browser of choice. A large part of this user base seems to be made up of corporate users. According to Stuart Strathdee, Chief Security Adviser at Microsoft Australia, one of the reasons for this continued usage is that companies have found a virtue in one of the browser's biggest flaws: it doesn't work properly with social networking sites like Facebook.

Rather than using a secure browser and creating corporate—or firewall—policies to block unwanted time-wasting sites, companies are depending on the browser's increasing obsolescence to render the sites unusable. This allows IT managers to keep users out of YouTube without having to actually confront the users they are supposed to be supporting; it's the sites' fault that Internet Explorer 6 doesn't work, not the IT department's fault for foisting that legacy browser on its users.

With major online Web services like Gmail and Google Docs increasingly choosing to ignore Internet Explorer 6, however, this strategy could start to backfire. And, given Internet Explorer 8's improved performance and security, Microsoft customers are advised to upgrade and find some other way to keep the pleasures of Farmville at bay.