Internet Explorer and Firefox Web Browsers

One of the newest battles to arise in the “browser wars” involves Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Since its debut, Firefox has steadily developed a loyal and growing fan base. As of June 2005, some browser counters recorded that while 86% of browser users were still using Internet Explorer, 12% were using Firefox; this was up from 6% in May of 2005.

According to many blogs on the Internet, there are several core issues which have caused former Internet Explorer users to switch over to Firefox.

Issues of the Broadband Browser Battle

Broadband Browser Issue #1: Security

One of the most significant complaints from bloggers writing about this issue are the security threats that Internet Explorer poses. Internet Explorer uses ActiveX, a program that was intended to help Internet users by automatically downloading software that was necessary to use for certain programs. Unfortunately, hackers and other miscreants soon caught wind of the fact that if they could simply infect certain files with viruses and spyware.  They learned that the ActiveX program would automatically download these files onto unsuspecting people’s computers. The program essentially does the work for them.

Firefox does not allow anything to be downloaded onto a user’s computer without the user’s express permission. This greatly helps preventing spyware and other malicious content from ruining computer files.

Microsoft has apparently been working hard to resolve this security issue as well as some others that have plagued the browser since its release. In fact, Microsoft is supposed to release an IE7 (Internet Explorer 7) in the summer of 2005, which is supposed to have a lot of security upgrades and improvements. 

Broadband Browser Issue #2: Navigation Ease

Firefox users rave about the browser’s inclusion of tabbed navigation, something that the current version of IE lacks. Tabbed browsing allows users to open up multiple Web pages while staying in the same browser window. Each separate Web page can be assigned a tab that allows users to easily switch back and forth between them instead of having to open and close new browser windows.

Again, Microsoft’s IE7 is rumored to include tabbed browsing, a factor which could influence some current Firefox users to go back to IE.

Will this growth trend continue? Only time will tell. Microsoft is set to debut a beta version of IE7 sometime during the summer of 2005, and if that does well, then some of Firefox’s users might disappear. Then again, Firefox does have the psychological advantage of being the underdog. In any case, if you have a broadband Internet connection, then you have the choice! Check out Firefox and see what you think.