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I remember a time when Internet Explorer clearly dominated the web browsing market. The only alternative at the time was Netscape Navigator and that had its fair share of problems which probably explains why now it is practically extinct! Some years back I discovered the first version of Firefox and decided to give it a try. The look and feel of it was something that I had never seen before and it had very few similarities to Internet Explorer. Whilst the look and feel can be down to a personal preference, there are many other things that make a browser good. Let’s take a look at them.

Usability – Firefox adopted a very simple yet effective user interface. Everything is where it should be, all the most common features and menus are easily accessible like bookmarks, history and settings. But what really separates Firefox from IE is how customizable it is. There are many themes and third party add-ons which can completely customize the look and browsing experience. These add-ons usually assist with many browsing features and can integrate easily with the Operating System or other websites. On the other hand Internet Explorer is lacking in terms of additional add-ons and themes and for most people what you see is what you get.

Stability and performance – When Firefox was originally released it was the first browser to use the tab system whereby a new browser instance could be opened in the same browser but under a different tab. This made browsing to multiple websites extremely easy and in some cases too easy! I find that when using Firefox it is easy to get carried away and by the end of the day I can easily end up with twenty or so tabs open. Although Firefox does handle system resources quite well, you can soon find that a lot of virtual memory is being taken up if your are opening up lots of tabs, especially those that display things like video or large image files. Internet Explorer seven and eight have adopted the same tab system and handle the resources very well; however the feel of the tabs does not seem as smooth as it does with Firefox.

Security – This is a very big issue with any web browser as there are new web exploits introduced each day that put your data at risk when browsing the web. Internet Explorer six was renowned for its very poor security and it is vulnerable to many exploits. Unfortunately many people still use IE6 and are at great risk of being victims of web site exploits that can lead to compromised systems and data theft. When Firefox was first released one of its main focuses was security and to begin with it was very rare to see any vulnerability in it. Some years on and with the massive exposure that Firefox has, many hackers are aiming their exploits on Firefox itself. However, Firefox is very good at handling most security issues and any major problems are normally fixed by the Firefox development team. As for Internet Explorer, version eight has come a long long way in terms of security but is still a big target for web based attacks and still doesn’t have the same level of security that Firefox offers.

In summary; Internet Explorer eight is a huge improvement from version six. However Firefox seems to be the better browser in terms of security and usability, which are two of the biggest features of web browsing today.