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Ex-Google Employee Admits Using YouTube To Kill Internet Explorer

Google has been long-accused of following manipulative practices to rise above all rival web browsers, and indeed it is now the most popular one out of the lot. Amidst the accusations, an ex-Google employee has admitted that Google followed such methods.

Chris Zacharias, a former YouTube developer, via his blog post has suggested that Google was involved in a conspiracy by YouTube developers (which it bought in 2005) in 2009.

The incident was all about killing Internet Explorer 6 or IE6 which led to the decline of the Microsoft web browser’s share.

Tired of updating the IE UI every one or two weeks, the developers wished to get rid of IE6 by not being open about it.

Hence, the team decided to show up a warning for the same instead of doing that directly. The notice to end support for the web browser was only visible to Internet Explorer users, and this led to IE’s share drop from 19% to 10% in the market.


The warning read: “We will be phasing out support for your browser soon. Please upgrade to one of these more modern browsers.

While many (the PR team, lawyers, and more) approached the team to take off the warning banner, it was eventually discovered that Googlers wanted to end support for Internet Explorer and it indeed happened.

This is not the first time Google has been accused of following such practices, and an ex-Mozilla employee suggested that Google took over Mozilla by its ‘amateur tactics.’

Google has been under negative light for reaching the top by unfair means. However, is it wrong or people are merely venting their frustration now?

What are your thoughts? Comment below.

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