Internet Explorer and Firefox square up for a showdown
Not that long ago, it was assumed that the 'browser wars' were over. The browser that was once king, Netscape Navigator, was all but gone - and Internet Explorer was almost universal. Then along came an upstart called Firefox - and everything changed. Now, Microsoft is fighting back with the next version of Internet Explorer, but it will have to contend with a new version of Firefox, due to be released around the same time.
20 September 2006
If Internet Explorer was so good that it virtually wiped out Netscape, why has Firefox become so popular? Essentially, three reasons. First, security. Internet Explorer became the target of many security exploits – partly because it was so popular and partly because the whole field of internet security was so new at the time that Microsoft was continually being outflanked by hackers. Second, standards compliance. Although standards are defined by the World Wide Web Consortium for how HTML should be rendered, Microsoft often ignored these or developed its own standards. This led to many sites only working properly in Internet Explorer – something which still remains an issue today. (To be fair, this is something that Netscape was guilty of too, though not to the same extent.) However, pressure grew for browsers to render pages in a consistent way – so that people would see the same view of a Web site, regardless of the browser they were using. Finally, proving that monopolies are a bad thing, Microsoft ‘rested’ development on Internet Explorer, opening up the market for a more innovative browser.
And along came Firefox. It was small and fast, delivering great performance. It was more secure – though some of this was because it was a new target. It was highly standards compliant – possibly the most standards compliant browser, rendering HTML very close to the way that standards defined it should be. And it was innovative – offering tabbed browsing and an open architecture which allowed plug-ins to extend its functionality. Firefox proved a hit with Web developers and IT professionals – and soon the word spread. Firefox gained market share, mostly at the expense of Internet Explorer. Apart from Linux, Firefox is one of the great open source software success stories.
Clearly, Microsoft didn’t get where it is by ignoring the competition, and it was announced that development had begun on Internet Explorer 7 – moving the company’s focus from bug-fixing to innovative development. But Firefox isn’t standing still either – Mozilla (Firefox’s ‘owners’) had already updated Firefox to 1.5 – and now announced version 2. Both of these new browsers will be released at roughly the same time.
Let’s look at Internet Explorer first. Microsoft is good at learning from its mistakes - as the company says on its own Web site, when promoting Internet Explorer 7: “We heard you – you wanted it easier and more secure”. Internet Explorer 7 is a big leap forward in usability and security – and is a pretty good browser, certainly recovering the ground lost to Firefox.
First, it has a new look – it’s streamlined, so streamlined in fact, that there is no menu bar. Although this is initially disorienting, it doesn’t take long to get used to. There are still a few buttons (for things such as print and the new RSS reader) and a couple of drop-downs which contain the commands which would have resided in the menus. These are page (containing a few simple display options) and commands (which contains most of the more complex items). It works well, and is obviously intended to fit in with the way that Windows Vista works.
Internet Explorer 7 also features tabs – which allow you to open up different Web sites without the clutter of different browser windows. The implementation of tabs works really well – and even has a thumbnail view so you can see all of your open Web sites at a glance and switch between them easily.
And at last, Internet Explorer can print Web pages properly, without cropping off the margin, by reducing pages to fit your paper. This is long overdue, as although Web pages have been expanding to accommodate today’s larger monitors, these cannot often printed without the edges being clipped.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds – or news feeds – are now directly incorporated into Internet Explorer. If a page has an RSS feed available, subscribing to it is simply a matter of clicking a button to add it to your list of feeds – working in a similar way to the RSS feature in Firefox.
A search box is built into Internet Explorer, making it easier to search, though of course it defaults to MSN search.
At last, Internet Explorer is more standards compliant than it was before, though several issues still exist – hopefully these will be resolved over time, since the development team has stated its commitment to Web standards.
Finally, security. It’s fair to say security in Internet Explorer 7 is massively improved - impressively bringing it on a par with Firefox. It’s user-friendly, for instance warning you when you browse to a page which is a reported phishing Web site. Add-ons (the source of many security issues) can be disallowed and managed much more easily. In fact, because of its improved security, Microsoft is going to push out Internet Explorer 7 as an ‘essential update’ so many people will simply get it automatically as part of Windows update. On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 will be safer still, running in ‘protected mode’ which significantly reduces how the browser can read/write to your PC.
While it’s still not perfect, Internet Explorer 7 is nothing less than an essential download that will make your PC more secure and make browsing the Web a far better experience.
Clearly, much of this work is really just catching up with Firefox 1.5 – but with a raft of new features, Internet Explorer is sure to impress.
Loading up Firefox 2 for the first time is somewhat underwhelming – as there are few changes evident. There’s a lot for developers – such as JavaScript 1.7 and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) support. But dig a little deeper and there is more. Firefox, like Internet Explorer, now has built-in phishing protection, for instance.
But, for the most part, the improvements are incremental. Tabbed browsing is improved – though there is nothing as sexy as Internet Explorer’s thumbnails view. There is a built-in spell checker which can be used when filling in Web forms. There’s better support for RSS feeds. The extensions manager is vastly improved, making it much easier to manage extensions and themes (Firefox ‘skins’). Security is just as good as ever, as you might expect from the browser that made its name from being secure.
But when you compare the two browsers side by side, you realise just how much work Microsoft has done. A lot of the work may be catching up with Firefox, but catch up it has – the two browsers are neck and neck with little to choose between them. If you’re a developer or power user, Firefox retains its edge, with the great open architecture and wealth of extensions. But if you’re a home or corporate user, Microsoft has effectively removed many of the reasons for moving to Firefox. It’s hard not to be impressed.
