by Muhammad Fahd Waseem

Created on: June 06, 2009

There are many web browsers available to users for free. Each offers different features and capabilities, and each tries to be the best browser of all. The list of browsers is endless, yet, out of them, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox are clearly the most popular.

Internet Explorer is the browser that is installed on the Microsoft Windows platform by default. Mozilla Firefox must be downloaded separately and installed. It is possible to choose many points of comparison between the two browsers, but such a comparison would be superfluous. It is far more relevant to compare the two browsers in the most common and in-demand categories.

+ Security

Internet Explorer, whichever version you take, has always had security problems. This may stem from the fact that this ships of all version of Microsoft Windows and is thus a prime target to malicious code writers, or simply because the browser architecture is flawed and has 'holes'. Whichever the case, Internet Explorer is definitely not secure. Firefox, on the other hand, is far superior, particularly in terms of design. Designed from ground up with security in mind, all intrusive code finds it very hard to execute on Firefox. You have many extensions that enhance Firefox's defence capabilities even further.

Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer.

+Speed

Internet Explorer is also slow. On independent benchmarks from nearly all software reviewers, all versions on Internet Explorer are slower at Javascript processing, and web page display. Additionally, Internet Explorer browses page at a lower speed than Firefox, thanks to a less efficient page demand mechanism. And finally, Internet Explorer is a memory hog, takes slower to start up and is generally less responsive than Firefox.

Firefox is faster than Internet Explorer.

+User Friendliness

Internet Explorer strongly resembles the Windows Explorer. Many users feel more comfortable in the Internet Explorer's 'native' environment. Moreover, the current versions of Internet Explorer (7 and 8) stack away all their advanced features in just two buttons at the top left of the screen, while Firefox uses the conventional, but more cluttered, list menu at the top right of the screen. This is a highly relative analysis, but generally true.

Internet Explorer is friendlier for average users.

+Tabbed browsing

This is a feature where you can open multiple web pages in the same windows, but in 'tabs'. Mozilla Firefox introduced this earlier, and was so well

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