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Firefox, IE, or Opera?
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...129TX1K0000532

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July 19, 2006
Which New Browser Is Best: Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7, or Opera 9?
By Michael W. Muchmore

For a long time, there was nothing to talk about in web browsers. You used Internet Explorer, and that was it. Oh, to be sure, some Mozilla/Netscape holdouts clung to their ways, as did a smattering of users of Opera, Konqueror, and other obscurities. Internet Explorer itself hasn't had a major version change since the release of 6.0 in 2001, so there wasn't much to talk about there, either for five long years.

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That's all changed, thanks to that phoenixlike incarnation of Netscape technology, Firefox. In one year, the open-source darling Firefox has pulled within a dead heat of browser the browser popularity crown, at least on the ExtremeTech site, where each browser claims just over 43 percent of our viewers. This spurred Microsoft to leave off its complacency, and serious development of the formerly dominant browser restarted in earnest.

Right at this moment, big changes have or are about to occur in three well-known browsers: Internet Explorer is finally being updated, with version 7 in its third beta and almost ready to roll out the door; Firefox is also ripening an upgrade beta for its Version 2.0—it's in beta 1; and finally Opera, which has a devoted but smaller following, has recently come out with Version 9.0.

So, three new browsers in the same year, after no action for a half decade. How do they stack up? We do a comparison of features, usability, memory, and disk usage to help you decide which you should spend your hard earned…oh wait a minute, they're all free, so you can pick the one you want without worrying about out of pocket. Keep in mind: We're just looking at what's there right now, and not considering what the browser developers may have planned for later additions. Also, these are such feature-rich apps that it would be impossible to compare every little detail—which has support for Atom feeds or importing OPML, and advanced Java settings, for example—we'll stick to the stuff that's most apparent to regular users. Let's take the browsers out for a spin, then, shall we?

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Firefox 2.0 Beta 1

For such a major sounding version number increase—to 2.0—most users will be hard pressed to see much difference between this beta and Firefox 1.5. There's a lot more under the hood in the new version, for developers—JavaScript 1.7, client-side session and persistent storage, SVG (scalable vector graphics), SAX (Simple API for XML), and more. These developer features should translate into more features for end users in the long run.

For us little guys looking at the new browser now, the biggest changes are the spell checker in text boxes, renaming of the Go menu to History, combining Extensions with Themes in one dialog, and anti-phishing tool which you can find deep in a Setting tab.

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Here's the list of everything that's new in Firefox 2, according to its developers:

* Built in Phishing Protection.
* Search suggestions now appear with search history in the search box for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com
* Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
* Ability to re-open accidentally closed tabs
* Better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
* Inline spell checking in text boxes
* Search plug-in manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
* New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
* Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
* New combined and improved Add-Ons manager for extensions and themes
* New Windows installer based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
* Support for JavaScript 1.7
* Support for client-side session and persistent storage
* Extended search plug-in format
* Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
* Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

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If you uncheck the Check to see if the site I'm visiting might be a scam option and then recheck it, you get a wordy dialog explaining that you'll send data to Google's log about fishy pages. When we tried to switch between local and by asking, the only choice was Google, and that was grayed out.

We were unable to find a site that tripped this tool after setting it to run. We threw every URL from patently spam emails we could find. Perhaps we really did win a million euros or owe that eBay user's PayPal account for that $465 we don't remember bidding on. Even if we entered a URL that was known to be a phishing site, found on security sites that keep track of such things, we couldn't trip the feature. Granted, Mozilla Corp. representatives informed us that "as implemented in Beta 1 of Firefox 2, [Phishing Protection] is intended to test the core Phishing Protection framework within the browser, not to provide a full list of suspected scam sites."

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But all the themes we found merely changed the interface buttons and perhaps added an image to the top menu area; they don't change the window borders the way you can with WindowBlinds. And beware that most themes haven't yet been updated to work with Firefox 2.

With XUL, AJAX and other technologies, Firefox has the most programmable interface of the browsers, allowing developers to pretty much use it as a foundation for their web-based applications. One example is the limited word processor from Michael Robertson's new company Ajax 13, ajaxWrite.

One peeve: Why isn't there still a one-click button (by default) for adding a new tab? You can use the middle mouse button if you know about it—and if your mouse has one (laptop users need not apply)—on new links, but sometimes you want a new empty tab, which in Firefox requires going through menus, or double clicking on the empty space to the right of the last tab (if you knew about that—usability is about making needed features obvious).

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Addendum: Several readers have pointed out that you can customize the toolbar with an Add Tab icon, but this ain't the default, and it's not right there next to the tabs.

The security and tabbed browsing brought people to Firefox, and the extensions are what keeps them there. But it's a question of whether you're the type of person who likes to tinker with things to get them just how you want them, or to have something that comes with all the options built in. Extensions, themes, and interface programmability make Firefox the most flexible browser out there. But this programmability and its tremendous market share increase make it a target for security threats, which to their credit, the Firefox community of developers has addressed with a security updates.

If you really want to see a version of Firefox that's revamped, check out the Gecko-based Flock, which has added Web 2.0 features like tags, mashups with photo sharing and social bookmarking sites, and blogging. Flock also has implemented interesting interface features like a star button for quick favorite adds to both local and shared online sets, a topbar for browsing pictures, and a blog editor.

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Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3

Microsoft's major themes for the new Internet Explorer are "easier and more secure." We think catching up to the competition with stuff like tabbed browser windows, add-ins, and built-in search is probably also pretty high on the agenda, too. And it's a major overhaul from Version 6. The beta browser sports a new, slick, streamlined look.

Page zoom is much improved in IE7. In addition to holding down the Ctrl key and spinning the mouse wheel in and out, there's a zoom control in the lower right corner of the screen (see first picture of IE7). In Version 6, you could only zoom among the five text sizes, but in 7 you can zoom the page and pictures over a ridiculous range of small and large size, and the scroll bars zoom along with the browser contents.

IE7 adds some welcome conveniences for printing, too: It scales pages so they don't cut off on the side of the page—we've all run into this when printing web pages.

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Security
IE has been possibly the biggest target of security attacks over the last decade, with updates to cover holes a regular occurrence. Since Bill Gates's edict demanding "trustworthy computing" in 2002, Microsoft has been making big efforts towards eliminating these security holes, and IE 7 is intended to be a model child of this initiative. Defender, now in beta 2, is the major salvo in this direction; it's anti-spyware software that both finds spyware on your system and monitors for it in real time while you browse with IE.

According to Microsoft, the following security features are to be found in IE7:

* ActiveX Opt-in
* Security Status Bar
* Phishing Filter
* Cross-Domain Barriers
* Delete Browsing History
* Address Bar Protection
* International Domain Name Anti-spoofing
* URL Handling Security
* Fix My Settings
* Add-ons Disabled Mode
* Features Unique to Windows Vista