Okay so perhaps that's a slight exaggeration (and my apologies to the hard working Microsoft employees out there), but I was quite surprised to see a tweet from Microsoft announcing to the world:

@microsoft: It's not often that we encourage you to stop using one of our products, but for #IE6, we'll make an exception: http://bit.ly/g0wt4m

Not only that (which is a great statement to see regardless), clicking through we are presented with some great visual statistics on the rapidly descending Internet Explorer 6 usage across the globe.

Great, interesting even - but dig even deeper and Microsoft (via a third party) have actually undertaken a complete cost-benefit analysis, giving some great business reasons to upgrade the browser from a "oh but my business has lots of stuff that needs IE6" perspective. Sure, it's a bit of a Internet Explorer 8 lovefest, but I'll take the underlying point: upgrade!

This move from Microsoft is an interesting note from the perspective of community and social media as well. Microsoft have demonstrated they are listening and are getting involved with an important movement that is closely related to their company, despite it's potentially negativity. Good work.

The web has changed significantly over the past 10 years.

It will certainly be good to see the back of IE6 (and IE7 for that matter) so we, the Internet, can get on with things.

Check out Microsoft's IE6 Countdown site for more information on upgrading your browser away from Internet Explorer 6.