8/14/2019 Firefox2 Versus IE7-Done

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/firefox2-versus-ie7-done 1/4

 

Browser battle: Firefox 2 comes to take on IE7

 

Firefox 2.0 is due to be released on Tuesday. The next edition of the open source browser 

follows the delayed release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 last week. The MozillaFoundation's open-source Firefox web browser has been gaining ground on Microsoft's

Internet Explorer (IE). According to a recent study on web browser usage, by

 Netherlands-based OneStat.com, Firefox has gained 1.14% in June this year and is nowused by 12.93% of surfers. This is up from 11.79% in May, while IE use has declined by

2.12% to 83.05%. Here's looking into how the new release fares in comparison to the

software giant's IE7.

1. InterfaceAs per the beta versions, the Firefox looks more or less the same in version 2.0. There

really aren't any substantial differences. However, in IE7, the differences from the earlier version (IE6) are massive. The top bar misses the earlier refresh, home and print buttons.

The URL bar is extended, and refresh and stop have now become mini-buttons next to it.

There's an all-new search box, which in fact looks similar to the one in Firefox. Favouritetools are on the bar below along with tabs; which open, by default, on loading the

 browser. The menu bar too is gone. Most things that were on the menu bar have found

 place on the Tools dropdown.

2. Tabbed Browsing

Safari has tabs, Firefox has tabs, and now - finally - Microsoft has too has. So little

surprising, Mozilla too has enhanced the popular tabbed browsing feature in 2.0 that

Firefox introduced when it emerged two years ago as the first significant rival to IE in

8/14/2019 Firefox2 Versus IE7-Done

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/firefox2-versus-ie7-done 2/4

years. Tabs allow users to navigate more easily between multiple web pages when

 browsing the Internet, and Microsoft added tabs to IE 7 after Firefox's success with the

feature.

IE 7 allows users to create a folder out of open tabs in Favourites, which comes handy

while opening a number of sites at the same time. There is also the choice to open allthose tabs while launching a new browser window. IE 7 also gives the option to tile all

the open tabs in the main window, with a click of the panes button, next to the tabs and

easily find the one that is required.

In Firefox 2.0, Mozilla has added a "close" button on its tabs, and also added new visual

features to make the tabs appear more obvious to the user.

3. Search

This is the first version of IE that has had search in the toolbar. The search is, of course,MSN. However, one can switch to the search engine of their choice, by clicking on 'Find

More Providers' button.

In Firefox 2, search is largely same as it was in the earlier version. Google is the default,with some interesting default drop downs. Firefox 2.0 offers a new feature in its

integrated search box that suggests a list of search terms after a user types a few letters of 

a word, depending on the search engine being used. Firefox 2.0 uses Google, Yahoo andAsk.com search engines as options for the search box, and each uses a different algorithm

to suggest search terms, Beard said. So this feature is not disruptive to the user 

experience, the suggested search terms will appear in a separate pane below thesearchbox.

8/14/2019 Firefox2 Versus IE7-Done

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/firefox2-versus-ie7-done 3/4

4. Security

Like IE 7, Firefox 2.0 also has an anti-phishing filter that will help protect users from

divulging personal information to fraudulent websites. But Mozilla has taken a differentapproach to its anti-phishing filter than Microsoft has. Instead of checking individual web pages users visit against lists of known phishing sites, thus sending information from the

site to third parties that keeps lists of such sites, Firefox updates its black list of known

fraudulent websites automatically every half-hour to hour. This helps protect users' privacy as no information from the sites they've visited is sent to any third parties.

5. Add-Ons

 New usability features in Firefox 2.0 that differentiate it from IE 7 include one that will

restore the browser to pages where the user was working if a sudden OS restart isrequired. If a users' browser needs a restart or the OS asks you to reboot, losing all of 

those web pages and content may be pretty disruptive.

Firefox 2.0 is offering two options to enable this feature for users. One way is that by

default, the browser will give a user an option to restore his or her browser sessions if there is an unexpected shutdown, and the other is an advanced option to set the browser so it always restores the last five pages visited before a sudden reboot.

Mozilla also has added spell-checking features to the browser similar to those found in

word-processing applications. Whenever a user is typing text in the browser, such as

when typing the name of a website, a blog entry or an email, Firefox's spell checker willunderline in red words that appear misspelled. Right-clicking on the word will give a user 

options for the correct spelling.

8/14/2019 Firefox2 Versus IE7-Done

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/firefox2-versus-ie7-done 4/4

6. Compatibility

While IE version 7 catches IE up with now-common browser features of Firefox, such as

tabbed windows, improved Web standards support and enhanced security, there stillremains a soar point: IE 7 runs only on Windows systems. The browser currently runs

only on Windows XP with Service Pack 2. The Vista version of IE 7 will ship with the

new operating system.

While the final release of the Mozilla software package, which weighs in at around 5

MB, will be available in 39 languages for systems running Windows, Mac and Linuxcomputers from getfirefox.com from October 24, 2006.