For many years Internet Explorer enjoyed the first place in the internet browsers category but now the tides are turning. Last year Firefox 1.5 appeared and it has been slowly making its way to the throne. The statistics show that in October 2004 Internet Explorer had 92% of the market but in September 2005 that dropped to 86% and finally in September 2006 Internet Explorer's market share dropped to 82%, with Firefox's rising to 12.5%. Therefore, Microsoft Internet Explorer has lost 10 percent of its popularity to the competition.

We tested the 2 internet browsers and we will share the conclusions with you.

Let’s start with Firefox2:

The good:

- introduces a new option called spellcheck for the text boxes, very handy
- you can pause your downloads
- it comes with a slick new look
- it has a download manger
- it has the multi tab browsing
- you can install new themes
- you can install new extensions
- built-in search with multiple engine choice
- pop up blocker
- Macintosh/Linux/Windows version

The bad:

- doesn’t have a BitTorrent client
- doesn’t have a One-Click Button to add Bookmarks/Favorites
- it doesn’t Thumbnails for tabs

Now let’s see the options for Internet Explorer 7:

The Good:

- it has Thumbnails for tabs
- it has a redesigned look, better then the previous one
- you can use the One-Click Button to add Favorites
- it has the option to remember open tabs for next session
- it has a pop up blocker

The bad:

- you can’t change the themes
- it doesn’t have a download manager
- it misses the spellcheck implementation
- Macintosh/Linux versions unavailable
- it doesn’t have a BitTorrent client
- you cannot pause your downloads

Conclusions:

The new Internet Explorer 7 tries with this version to maintain its supremacy, but the new Firefox 2 doesn’t want that to happen so it has implemented a new very useful option called spellcheck, very appreciated by many people who surf the net often. Besides this it has a better usability and a better loading process and the most powerful card played by Mozilla is the fact that is free and it has versions for Windows, Linux and Macintosh and this is a card that Microsoft will probably never play.

Helpero recommends Firefox 2.

written by Madalin D.