Microsoft is making a philanthropic effort to get everybody running Internet Explorer 8. Apparently MS was already donating eight meals to a group called Feeding America for each copy of IE8 that’s downloaded from “Browser for the Better”. Downloads performed through the Windows Update process or downloaded from Microsoft.com (or any other source, for that matter) will not count toward this initiative. According to the official press release from Microsoft, the program was initially scheduled to run from June 10 to Aug. 8, 2009.
However, “Browser for the Better” indicates that the program will continue through Sept. 30, 2009. In addition, in honor of Hunger Action month (which, I assume is the month of September), Microsoft will be donating a total of 16 meals to the cause every time someone scraps Internet Explorer 6 in favor of the new browser.
As far as I’m concerned, this is a win-win situation. Even if only a few people take advantage of the program, hungry people will still get fed and we will have that many fewer users popping onto our Web sites with Internet Explorer 6. For both of those reasons, I sincerely hope that this last-minute push will be incredibly successful.