Product Comparison: Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Versus Internet Explorer 7.0

The browser wars have really heated up over the last few years. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been in the lead for much of this time, but a new product emerged in 2004 that has been quickly gaining market share due to its great reputation from users, security experts and developers. Mozilla Firefox, recently upgraded to version 2.0 in 2006, was the first browser to offer tabbed browsing - a way to view multiple web pages in the same browser session. Mozilla's latest offering is now competing head to head with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0, which offers its own tabbed-browsing feature.

Pop-Up Ads
Mozilla Firefox 2.0 is now the preferred browser as indicated by most leading industry review sources. PC Magazine and CNet.com both recognized Firefox 2 as their preferred web browser in October 2006. I started using Firefox to avoid pop-up ads which really detract from the web surfing experience. Switching to Firefox virtually eliminated my experience with pop-up ads.

Internet Explorer 7.0 has done its part by improving its built in "pop-up blocker" feature which many times blocked access to legitimate pop-ups, such as form data or those information links you click on for help inside many banking portals. I got so annoyed with this feature in Internet Explorer 6.0 that I eventually gave up on the built in pop-up blocking feature, turning it off and simply closing out pop-ups as they appeared.

Add-ons
Mozilla Firefox is an open-source application meaning there are developers working around the world to enhance its usability. One of the best features associated with Firefox is the ability to upgrade the browsing experience with add-ons. From Mozilla homepage, Mozilla.com, one may find several useful add-ons under the "Recommended Add-ons" section. Utilities such as ClipMarks allow you to "bookmark" just a certain portion of a website, such as a few paragraphs or a particular quote, without having to bookmark the whole page. Other add-on features include weather maps, social networking tools and several chat utilities. I personally have installed the Forecastfox and Map+ add-ons for weather forecasts and address mapping.

Internet Explorer 7.0 is somewhat limited in terms of add-ons. Microsoft has not made Internet Explorer an open-source program making it difficult for 3^rd party developers to create tools that synchronize IE's experience. There are some built-in features that are nice such as RSS feed detection - which allows you to subscribe to a site's feed with a single click. However, Mozilla Firefox 2.0 has many more utilities available for integration directly with the browser.

Security
This one is a tie. Both browsers have taken steps to enhance security in their newest releases. Internet Explorer 7.0 may have a slight advantage simply because of the negative attention Explorer 6.0 received related to security issues. Microsoft placed more of an emphasis here than Mozilla in developing their next release, but both are deemed fairly secure.

Interface
I prefer the interface of Mozilla Firefox 2.0 over Internet Explorer 7.0. Internet Explorer tried to capitalize on Mozilla's tabbed browsing experience, but in doing so has removed some of the standard tool bar features many users like me had come to expect. The hidden menu feature in Internet Explorer is annoying because I get used to clicking on "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" and not having to look over a row of icons for the corresponding executable.

Site Presentation
Mozilla Firefox 2.0 is my default web browser, but I still keep Internet Explorer 7.0 around because some older sites do not render properly in Firefox 2. This is largely due to the way old programming code accounted for down-level browsers. Newer development tools, and some hacks for older sites, have made reduced many of these bad layouts in Firefox.