In 2009, Internet Explorer 6 was 8 years old. Despite the arrival of its successors IE7 and iE8, many users had decided to remain faithful to the old version. YouTube at that time had only four and had already managed to become one of the most visited websites in the world. 18% of its traffic came from Internet Explorer 6 and Google developers had great difficulty in ensuring the proper functioning of the site in this version of the browser.
How YouTube Engineers Plotted to Kill Internet Explorer 6
According to Chris Zacharias, a former developer of YouTube, the Internet Explorer 6 puzzle for engineers led the team to take action to push users to abandon it. At the time, Google had just bought YouTube and the former developers of the platform became employees of the firm of Mountain View had special privileges of "OldTubers".
Anyone with these privileges could freely modify the YouTube site without going through the Google control process. The former Google engineer explains that it was a real lawless area where former developers YouTube could do what they wanted. Only the risk of serious acts and therefore losing their job kept them on the right path. But that did not stop them from plotting against Internet Explorer.
The banner of the stampede
Since they did not have the power to decide to stop the support of Internet Explorer 6, Zacharias and his fellow conspirators had the idea to announce the end of this support without the approval of the hierarchy, hoping that this decision would cause a mass exodus. That's how a banner appeared on YouTube to announce the end of IE 6 support, while inviting users to switch to another browser.
This announcement received a favorable echo in the Tech press who hailed and relayed the decision. Internet Explorer was perceived as an outdated browser despite its popularity. It's a bit like Windows 7 users who refuse to upgrade to Windows 10.
The ex-engineer engineer explains in his post blog that this act has still earned them a rise of straps. Google's Legal Department has urged them to remove the banner, fearing that it may be interpreted as a clear way to promote Google Chrome. But the developers explained that the suggested browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer 8, or Chrome) were displayed in a random and fair order.
This action managed to precipitate IE6 towards his death. Other Google services have followed suit: "YouTube, Google Docs and several other Google properties have the same banner. Google had given permission to all other sites to add their own IE6 banner. She suddenly started to appear everywhere.
In the end, Internet Explorer 6 lost 50% of its users after only one month. The measure has therefore been effective. This story is a reminder that apart from this clandestine action by Google engineers, the firm is also regularly accused of deliberately causing harm to its competitors browsers to promote Chrome.
