by Johnathan A. Daniels

Created on: June 15, 2010

Microsoft Internet Explorer was first distributed in 1995, as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95. By 1999 the web browser had become the most widely used, hitting a usage share of 95% during 2002 and 2003. For over a decade it has been the most dominant browser. However, in recent years, its usage share has plummeted to an approximate 50% and is continuing in a downward trend. The cause of such a dramatic drop? Mozilla Firefox, namely. Firefox is currently the fastest growing browser, achieving a following of 350 million users in six years time, with a usage share of 31% as of May 2010. The browser’s excellence, in customization, security, and performance has been paramount to its success. But is it really better than Internet Explorer? Let’s take a look.

 Internet Explorer includes basic features such as a popup blocker, tabs, favorites, the ability to open recently closed tabs, the ability to open the previous browsing session, and InPrivate browsing. These features are common between Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers; in addition to those features, IE 7 sports a couple of other features: Parental Controls, Content Advisor, Compatibility View (support for websites designed for older browsers), Accelerators, and relational tab colors. It’s also worth mentioning that IE is considered by many to be the most user friendly browser, with a simple user interface similar to that of Windows Explorer. Also, it is the only browser with Active X support. Currently there is an Internet Explorer 8 Add-on Gallery with a little over thousand add-ons. However, according to Microsoft these add-ons account for more than 70% of Internet Explorer 8’s crashes.

Mozilla Firefox, released in 2006, is an award winning open source browser. Firefox comes equipped with a spell checker, the ability to open recently closed windows, a download manager, and the FastBack feature among others. Firefox provides improved tab functionality, allowing you to drag a tab away from the tab row and drop it – removing the tab from the current window and opening the content of the tab in a new window(and vice versa). Also, Firefox remembers usernames and passwords, saving you from having to type them in every time you wish to log into a site (this feature can be disabled). In respect to add-ons, Firefox dominates. Mozilla features an add-on library of nearly two billion add-ons.

Security wise, Microsoft has definitely put forth some effort, with Internet

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