BANGALORE, INDIA: Well, it might be good news for Microsoft to celebrate the dip in Internet Explorer (IE) usage that too less than 1 per cent in the US, at the same time it might bring in a bit of disappointment to all those IE 6 users.

Launched in 2001, Microsoft's Internet Explorer became an instant hit, when the software giant officially announced its availability for its customers and web developers.

Microsoft has been struggling hard to educate IE 6 users to switch from the old version to the new version of its new web browsers, IE 8 or IE 9.

Also read: Microsoft to scrap Internet Explorer 6

"Time to pop open the champagne because, based on the latest data from Net Applications, IE6 usage in the US has now officially dropped below 1 per cent!," said Roger Capriotti, Director, Internet Explorer Marketing in a blog post.

The company celebrated this milestone achievement by baking a specially designed "Goodbye IE6" cake. with HTML5 logo on it.

He further added that IE6 has been the punchline of browser jokes for a while, and we’ve been as eager as anyone to see it go away.

Also read: IE9 to disappoint Windows XP users

Apart from the US, Net Applications said the company has witnessed that the usage of IE 6 has dropped to less than 1 per cent in countries like Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.

"We hope this means more developers and IT Pros can consider IE6 a “low-priority” at this point and stop spending their time having to support such an outdated browser," added Capriotti.

It may be noted that, Microsoft had launched an official site in March 2011 -- www.ie6countdown.com -- in an attempt to create an awareness to its user base to stop using the ten-year-old browser.

"Internet Explorer 6 is clearly one of the biggest hurdles developers face in their work and in helping us all move to the beautiful new world of HTML5," said Steve Clayton in Microsoft TechNet blog.

Now it is a matter of fact that IE6 is likely to be officially removed from the web-development in this year and can be declared as dead.