What internet browser you prefer to use?

Change is a way of life. Civilizations rule the world, and one day a pile of ruins and a few archaeologists poking around is all that's left behind. A few years ago, Microsoft dominated the landscape, destroyed Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer was all that you could see, horizon to horizon, or from desktop to desktop. Then a little toddler called open source came along, and there was a tectonic shift. Mozilla.org came up with a new browser to combat the hegemony of IE, and the result was a free and increasingly sophisticated and technologically superior browser.

Microsoft is not a pile of ruins and Bill Gates is still the richest man in the world. They are fighting hard to keep their browser where it is - The most widely used web browser in the world. The statistics, as of July 2007 :

1. MSIE 6.x ----------4586716---------- (52%)

2. MSIE 7.x ----------1680029 ----------(19%)

3. FireFox ----------1126273 ----------(13%)

4. Netscape comp.---------- 876930---------- (10%)

5. Safari---------- 244749 ----------(3%)

6. Unknown----------98514---------- (1%)

7. Opera x.x----------72477---------- (1%)

8. MSIE 5.x----------64640---------- (1%)

As you can see Microsoft still has 72% of the web browser market. And they have been duking it out for years now. That said, Microsoft has some significant handicaps. Below the fold is an in-depth comparison of the latest browsers from both sides, their advantages and defects.

It's one thing to decide which is the best web browser to use as a web surfer, and its quite another to get a web page to display properly in both IE and Firefox. Believe me, the image above may seem funny, but its absolutely true. Sometime back, I tried to switch to CSS, and it just wouldn't work in both browsers. I finally got it to work, after doing something ( I have no idea what ), but by then Google got tired of my experimentation and dropped all my pages from the search rankings. I promptly switched back to tables, and I'm slowly inching my way back up in the rankings.

I still don't understand why there is this incompatibility between the two browsers when it comes to CSS. It's a much debated topic, and while tere are a lot of suggestions on the net, there is no sure-fire answer, and te best way is to do trial and error.

Ok. Let's get down to what you really wanted. There are two popular web browsers today - IE7 and Firefox 2.0. Listed below are their plus points and negative aspects.

Internet Explore 7

Plus Points :

• Technically free, but you still need to buy the Windows opearting system.
• Has corrected many defects present in IE6
• Has added missing previously missing facilities like tabbed browsing
• More stable and less vulnerable to adware, malware and oter third party intrusions.
• Sleek and new look
• Anti-phishing technology and RSS reader buiilt in.

Negatives :

• The tech elite still prefer Firefox, for various reasons
• The Menu bar, links and other stuff at the top of the browser take up too much space.
• Installing, or upgrading to IE7 takes a lot of time.
• Can cause some hiccups if IE7 is pre-installed, and you change or upgrade operating systems.
• Still has problems with Java and flash support.

Firefox 2.0

Plus Points :

• Absolutely free and open source.
• Highly stable, relatively immune to viruses and adware, malware, etc.
• Has a huge collection of open source plug-ins to enhance functionability and usefulness.
• Is being promoted by Google.
• Suitable for all platforms and operating systems, including MS Windows and Mac OS X.

Negatives :

• Has problems with CSS incompatibility with other browsers.
• Slightly slower than IE7 when displaying web pages.
• Default settings are not optimal. You need to change a lot of things to get it working at its best.
• Not as sleek as IE7. Looks a bit shoddy.
• Weak anti-phishing filter, as compared to IE7.
• Complaints about system freeze on upgrading to Firefox 2.0

Summary : Before IE7 was released, Microsoft was taking a beating in the browser arena. But with bot IE7 and Firefox 2.0 coming out around the same time, Microsoft has effectively selaed the breach in the dam, and users have stopped flowing out of Microsoft's sticky fingers. Personally speaking, I changed from IE6 to Firefox and back to IE7. I did download Firefox and use it for a sort time, and let's just say that I'm happy with what IE7 has to offer, even if it means supporting Microsoft's monopoly.