Google announced Friday that its Google Apps suite, including such services as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and more, will no longer officially support Internet Explorer 8 starting on November 15.
As Internet Explorer 8 is the last version of Internet Explorer to be supported on Windows XP, one result of this move is Google Apps will no longer support Windows XP, unless users can upgrade to a recent version of a different browser.
Google"s decision isn"t one made against Windows XP specifically. Its policy is to support the latest version of Google Chrome and the current and prior major releases of Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. This means that every new major version release of the competitors" browsers results in Google Apps ceasing to support the now third-oldest browser version.
With the imminent release of Internet Explorer 10 on October 26 and Windows XP"s incompatibility with versions of Internet Explorer past 8, this was merely an inevitability. Google Apps support will be officially discontinued for Internet Explorer 8 on November 15, 2012. Users who access Google Apps services in Internet Explorer 8 after this date will see a message recommending a browser upgrade. If only that were possible.
This could have potential ramifications for businesses that rely on Google Apps services, but are still using computers with Windows XP.
Source: Google Apps Official Blog