1. It’s old.
2. It’s outdated.
3. It doesn’t support new technology.

What does this mean? It means that it’s a  pain for developers, and that means an increased charge for you to have us work around it. So, we do have some mutual interest in you upgrading your browsers regularly.

I totally get that some firms have invested a lot of money in certain technology. Upgrading that technology might not be financially viable.

Those people probably aren’t your target market anyway, unless you’re a “B to B” business. Still, I don’t believe that IE6’s market share of 9.6% are government workers, or people browsing websites at work. The relatively newer IE7 has 11%, while the newest version of Internet Explorer, IE8 has 14.7%.

Why is the market share for IE almost evenly spread throughout it’s 35.3% (down almost 1% from January) market share? I’ll tell you why. Because IE doesn’t encourage you to upgrade your browser.

I logged on with Firefox the other day, and I got this message asking me to download version 3.6. Note that it doesn’t require you to update if you don’t want to, but it does tell you why you should: It’s faster, more secure, with thousands of add-ons. As a bonus, it lets you do all of that in one easy click of the mouse. In less than 5 minutes you’re updated. You can even browse the web while it downloads in the background.

Aside from the visual and security updates, what’s important for web developers are the back end updates that come along with upgraded browsers. Features that support new technologies like CSS3 and HTML5 make coding your site easier. They help your website to load faster and more efficiently, in the long run helping your online sales or business to grow.

Microsoft doesn’t do this. Microsoft makes you find the update, download it, and install it. That’s why we still have 20% of users using outdated browsers. That’s why most (awesome) web designers hate Internet Explorer.

So, do yourself a favor. Switch to Firefox. When you notice that the web is a lot prettier and loads faster, you’ll leave me a comment and thank me for my advice.

Be the lucky downloader and you could win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card! As of a few minutes ago they were at 9,988,719,650. Within the few minutes it took me to write this post, it already jumped over 25,000 downloads.

You can see his past costumes & celebrations on his special page. Keep an eye out for his upcoming St. Patrick’s Day costume.

Dufour, Laskay & Strouse (DLS) is the nation’s leader in marine surveying, appraisal, and claims services. The firm is over 40 years old with each surveyor and appraiser having an average of twenty years of experience in the maritime field, and the firm has the largest concentration of NAMS certified surveyors and ASA certified marine appraisers in the industry.

Lifeline Fire & Security Commercial Solutions is a new company that specializes in security systems for the South’s largest retail chains. The company’s new mark will be showcased on the work trucks, metal signage around their client’s perimeters and on windows to signal that the property is secure and protected.

Chateau Cleary is an apartment community centrally located in Metairie on Cleary Avenue. The community has been residents that have lived at the property for over 25 years because of the friendly office, onsite laundry facilities, and garden style living.

Chambliss Auto Body Repair is a full-service company that specializes in the art of auto body and air conditioning repair. The company has a reputation for quality craftsmanship, competitive pricing, efficient turn-around time, advanced technology, and personalized customer service. We developed a website that reflects the company’s style and individuality depicted in their logo.

The Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court (24 JCD) handles all civil and criminal matters in Jefferson Parish with 16 elected judges. The website is the central location for information for the court including how to get to the court house, judge biographies, and jury duty information. A special section for the Magistrate is updated weekly with the court’s schedule for the week.

Not sure what that exactly means. It means more and more people are going to LinkedIn to find employment through via networking and more people are doing business through LinkedIn. This also shows rapid growth for LinkedIn. WebProNews.com stated that the website had announced 55 million members less than two months ago which translates to a 9 percent growth in two months!

Their first ad ever aired during Super Bowl 44 (that’s in 2010). I would be willing to bet that it was the cheapest to produce out of all the commercials that night, yet for me, it was the most effective.

It really is remarkable how much imagery was set off in my head by such a seemingly simple advertisement. By showing us 12 simple live keyword searches, Google managed to tell us an entire love story, from beginning to happy ending.

If you weren’t one of the 106 million people that watched the game, or if you just want to watch it again, you can follow along here.

“Study abroad in Paris“ – We start off with a (presumably) young male looking for a way to study abroad. What better place to start than Google?

“Cafés near the Louvre“ – We assume he’s found the right place to study, has just gotten off the plane, and is looking for  a place to relax near the Louvre in Paris. Oh, he’s found a place called the cabaret. That sounds nice. Maybe he’ll have a coffee and a croissant. I bet it’s nice outside.

(Did you notice he misspells Louvre – ‘Loo’? It ads a bit of realism to it.)

“Translate ‘tu es trés mignon’“ – A french girl has come up to our young student and said, “Tu es trés mignon.” He hasn’t got a clue what that means. Thanks to Google, he’s found out what it means. A French girl thinks he’s very cute?! What a great first day in Paris!

“Impress a French girl“ – Now that he knows she likes him, what is he going to do to impress her? What better way to find out than with Google?

“Chocolate shops in Paris France” - Thanks to Google, he’s found out that French girls love nothing more than chocolate. Thanks to the advice from Google, he finds “Cacao et Chocolate,” where the girl behind the counter tells him that a French girl’s favorite thing in the world is a truffle. He had better get her a truffle!

“What are truffles?“ – A what? A truffle? What the heck is a truffle?! Google to the rescue.

“Who is Truffaut“ – Since he’s new to Paris, and he’s not very fluent in French, our young student misunderstands the clerk at Cacao et Chocolat. A French girl’s favorite thing isn’t a truffle at all (silly Americans)! It’s the influential French film maker, François Truffaut! And luckily, “Day For Night” is her favorite film!

“Long distance relationship advice“ – Our young French girl was obviously impressed by our young student’s knowledge of French New Wave film. They both know it’ll be hard, but they’re determined to make it work.

“Jobs in Paris“ - Our two long distance love birds have suffered through several semesters away from each other. Graduation is only a few short months away. It’s time to start searching for jobs in Paris.

“DL 8601” - Our student is nervous. This is a big step. He checks his flight status to make sure everything is on time and ready to go.

Interestingly, this search term was changed from the original that aired on YouTube several months ago. The original search term was “AA 120.” If you notice the results, there are two hits for audio equipment. Did Google change the search term to get rid of irrelevant results? I think so.

“Churches in Paris“ – Their patience has paid off. He’s asked her father for permission, and now it’s time to find the right place. Not just any place will do. Ah, the Paoisse Saint Léon. A beautiful church on Place du Cardinal Amette. Perfect for this budding couple. They even have a website where they can see pictures of previous weddings online, from the comfort of their Paris flat.

“How to assemble a crib“ – The Paoisse Saint Léon on Place du Cardinal Amette was a beautiful ceremony. The newly weds immediately left for their honeymoon and began growing their family. There’s only one problem, he’s not very mechanically inclined. Thank God for Google!

—

Google told us this entire story without actually saying anything. All of this imagery was portrayed by the simple use of searching for everyday things online via their search engine. I’m sure this ad wasn’t made to turn any Bing or Yahoo users into avid Google followers, but what it did do was evoke an emotional response from Google’s already established users to make sure they weren’t going anywhere.

Overall, the ad was simple and well put together. It wasn’t the normal, over the top, cute animals talking, unfunny celebrity cameo garbage we normally get for a Super Bowl commercial.

This ad was only one in the series of videos made by Google called “Search Stories,” which you can find here: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories. they’re all similar to this, with subjects ranging from starting high school to fixing pot holes, but this one was definitely the most heart warming.

This ad had class, and I dug it.