Because geek is cool and clever

One browser to rule them all October 27, 2007

The past fortnight has seen two major releases in the web browser market.

Microsoft was first off the block when it unleashed Internet Explorer 7 on the world and it was closely followed just a few days later by a new milestone release of Mozilla Firefox.

As regular readers will know, I’m no fan on Internet Explorer. Lacklustre security, no real innovations and an almost total disregard for important web standards, coupled with Microsoft’s monopoly that sees the browser on just about all new PCs purchased, has undoubtedly hurt the web and its reputation over recent years.

Firefox, on the other hand, has considerably tighter security, made innovations like tabbed browsing and extensions and complies more closely with standards.

Microsoft had previously stated that it would no longer be releasing updates to Internet Explorer but as awareness of its security flaws grew, take up of alternative browsers, most noticeably Firefox, grew rapidly and the company was forced to do something about it.

So how do these new browser versions fare?

There’s no denying that IE7 is a radical step forward. A very new interface, in keeping with the design of the forthcoming Vista, is sure to confuse many average computer users but features like tabbed browsing, a rather nifty built-in RSS newsfeed reader and a final acknowledgement by Microsoft that security is important, definitely makes IE7 a compelling product.

So does it offer Windows users currently turned on to Firefox a reason to switch back?

Sorry, Microsoft, but it doesn’t even come close.

Firefox 2 takes the success of its predecessor and builds on it. An enhanced interface, a built-in spell checker and a phishing filter that alerts of potential attempts at tricking you to fraudulently provide passwords mean the best just got better. On the downside, the long standing problem of a memory leak that can see the browser take up vast amounts of your computers RAM if left open for a long time is still present, although it’s probably something only noticed by techies with hefty browsing habits.

A fly in the ointment of Firefox’s continuing success could be that Microsoft will eventually push out IE7 as an automatic update meaning that Windows users will probably end up with it by default.