Updates to Facebook Chat mean no more IE6 support

In answer to a growing use of its service, Facebook has just released a blog post detailing what it has been working on with Facebook Chat. According to the post, the service has grown, in the two years since launch, to be one of the most widely-used services on the site.

However, users have reported problems with the chat dropping out for periods of time or simply not working at all. Facebook has been working hard to correct these issues, apparently with much success. However, there is one caveat:

The biggest improvements come from changes that aren’t supported on older web browsers. After evaluating the alternatives, we’ve decided to make rapid improvements and provide the best Chat experience possible, which means we will no longer support Internet Explorer 6 browsers.

The end to support won’t go in effect until September 15th, in order to give people time to prepare.

While IE6 is dying a slow and painful death in browser share, it does still hold greater than 7% of the market. Given the campaigns to end its use, maybe one final push will be what it takes.