Web wars fire up

MICROSOFT Internet Explorer has dominated the web browser market for longer than most can recall.
But since the release of Mozilla’s Firefox 1.5 in late 2005, Internet Explorer’s superiority has quickly eroded.
According to information from NetApplications.com, in October 2004 Internet Explorer had 92 per cent of the market; in September 2005 that dropped to 86 per cent, and as of September 2006, Internet Explorer’s market share dropped to 82 per cent, with Firefox’s rising to 12.5 per cent.
In just two years Microsoft had shed 10 per cent of its audience to its competition.
Internet Explorer 7 is Microsoft’s first new browser since 2001 and has been designed to go toe-to-toe with Firefox 2, released in October 2006.
But which is best?
Internet Explorer’s obvious new feature is the addition of tabbed browsing, a tool that helped Firefox develop a cult-like following back in 2005.
The problem for IE7 is that, aside from tabbed browsing, nothing in version seven is actually ‘new’.
Firefox 2 boasts several new features, including an as-you-type spell check and an intuitive auto-complete search function.
When it comes to installation, Firefox 2 toasts its competition.
IE7 takes forever to download, requires Windows validation and then – annoyingly – a restart.
Firefox 2, on the other hand, is a small download, installs in 30 seconds and requires no reboot.
IE7 was Microsoft’s one and only chance to leapfrog Mozilla in the web-browser wars but its new release has barely caught sight of the competition frontrunners.
Firefox 2 is freely available at www.firefox.com, Internet Explorer 7 can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.