Google said today it will soon no longer support Internet Explorer 8 for its outsourced, cloud-based enterprise email and collaboration platform, Google Apps. This will mean that older browser users can't use Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar, and certainly no Google Drive for users of the older browser.

The move will follow the release of Internet Explorer 10 is shipped to stores worldwide. However there will be a knock on effect on Windows XP. Users of the ancient operating system can't install IE9. Google Apps are popular in colleges and schools, businesses and even government departments and many of these rely on Windows XP for legacy applications.

Ironically the move is likely to benefit Microsoft who has been trying to get people to upgrade from XP for the last five years.