Google Apps to Stop Supporting IE8 Soon

With the Internet Explorer 10 release fast approaching, Google has announced that it will stop supporting the third oldest version of that browser i.e. Internet Explorer 8 and in turn only focus its efforts on versions 9 and 10 of that browser. All users who access Google Apps including Google Apps for Business, Education and Government from Internet Explorer 8 will be affected. Such users, on trying to access Google apps will see a message recommending them to upgrade their browser. Explaining this policy on their Gmail blog, Google said:

For web applications to spring even farther ahead of traditional software, our teams need to make use of new capabilities available in modern browsers. For example, desktop notifications for Gmail and drag-and-drop file upload in Google Docs require advanced browsers that support HTML5. Older browsers just don’t have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience.

The most severely affected will be those who use Internet Explorer on Windows XP, since neither IE9 nor IE10 is available for versions of Windows prior to Vista. This will have severe repercussions for a huge number of people in IT sector and other large organizations where the systems administration department have either not yet upgraded to the newer versions of Windows or which do not allow users to install any browsers other than Internet Explorer. These users might not be able to access most features in Gmail, Calendar, Drive etc. which use newer technologies such as HTML5, and at some later point of time, will stop working entirely.

Since Internet Explorer is due to launch on 26^th October 2012, Google has given time until 15^th November 2012 for existing users to upgrade their browsers.