Microsoft celebrates IE6 death as Google downranks Chrome

Microsoft has celebrated the imminent demise of version 6 of its Internet Explorer browser by baking a cake.

The software giant held the light-hearted celebration as it revealed that the program was used by less than 1% of US internet surfers.

It is keen to kill off the old version of the browser and persuade users to move to IE8 or 9.

Meanwhile rival Google has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown on the promotion of its Chrome browser.

Chrome climbdown

It has downgraded Chrome in its search listings after the discovery that a marketing campaign paid bloggers to promote a video about it.

The search giant has distanced itself from the campaign, blaming third-party marketing firm Essence Digital.

The issue was discovered by Aaron Wall, who wrote in his SEO Book blog, how he found that a search for "This post is sponsored by Google" threw up more than 400 pages written as part of a marketing campaign.

Search expert Danny Sullivan said the revelation was "jaw-dropping".

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