I’m sure you’ve all heard of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Bought from a company known as Spyglass Mosaic, this Internet browser has dominated the Internet for years. After practically annihilating Netscape navigator, Internet Explorer continued to rise in the charts until 2004 when Mozilla released Firefox 1.01. This open source browser was driven by tens of thousands of programmers all over the world. Secure, frequently updated, and expandable, this browser is a serious threat to Microsoft’s domination of the web browser industry.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

According to Wikipedia Internet Explorer (IE) has been the most widely used browser since 1999. Its usage peaked at 200 million users in 2006. The most likely explanation for IE’s growth and popularity is the fact that it is driven by the world’s most powerful software company. Microsoft first started including IE into Windows 95 and has continued to package it into every version of Windows since. Microsoft drove IE to become, by far, the most popular browser on the web.

Since 1995, Microsoft has released a new and improved version of its browser every two years. However, after releasing version 6 in 2001, Microsoft’s attention was focused elsewhere. For five years IE6 remained without any feature updates. This marked the beginning of Internet Explorer’s decline in popularity. Security flaws, lack of adherence to web standards, and other technological problems plagued this aging version of the software. PC World Magazine even ranked IE6 as the eighth worst tech product of all time.

In a desperate attempt to resuscitate its dying web browser, Microsoft finally released IE7 in late 2006. Many of its new features, such as tabbed browsing, were borrowed directly from other web browsers. Other new ideas were also implemented by Microsoft: the layout was changed; improvements were made to support universal web standards, and phishing protection was incorporated into the browser.

Internet Explorer is often criticized for its lack of adherence to web standards and poor security. According to a security advisory site, Secunia, there are currently 18 unpatched flaws in Internet Explorer 6. These holes present the perfect opportunity for a malicious hacker to take advantage of a user’s web browser, devastating their computer.

Although its flaws are immense and numerous, many are reluctant to move away from IE because many websites are designed to work exclusively for IE. Due to the fact that IE is used by the majority of users, most developers don't take the time to make their website accessible by both Firefox and IE. As Firefox’s popularity grows, however, this is becoming less and less of an issue.



Mozilla Firefox

November 9th, 2004 was the day Mozilla Firefox 1.0 was released. Up until that point IE was used by 92% of Internet users. As the word got out and the power of this new open source browser started to spread, Firefox became the most downloaded open source program on the Web. Since Firefox 1.0 was released, Firefox has been downloaded 300 million times. This number is not including updates from former versions, nor does it include downloads from 3rd party websites.

Aside from being a “non-Microsoft” product, Firefox’s appeal came from a large amount of unique features. Due to the fact that it is open source, many developers from all over the world built extensions and themes to customize the browser. For example, I have installed an add-on called “Scrapbook” which allows me to download pages instantly and then write notes, highlight important information, and perform a number of other useful features. Though there are a multitude of others, this particular extension can be an invaluable research tool for students.

Security is also a large issue where the Internet is involved. Firefox is known for having very few and generally minor exploits, as opposed to the multitude of security flaws present in IE. In fact, the flaws in IE are really what started the “Spread Firefox” movement. When a teenager named Blake Ross found his computer had been turned into a “Zombie box” (a computer that is used to spread spam) because of an IE security flaw, he swore to never use IE again. Ross then joined with the Firefox developers and started the movement to spread this new browser.

One other advantage to Firefox is that it’s cross-platform. Cross-platform means that it can be used on systems running Macintosh, Windows and Linux. This is a rather large advantage over its competition because so far IE7 doesn’t seem like it will be available to users of Mac or Linux.

The Competition

As we all know, the Internet is an extremely powerful tool. Many times, however, the Internet is limited to the power of the software used to experience it. For this reason the browser we choose to use is extremely important. Throughout the majority of the Internet revolution, IE has been the dominant browser. In fact, almost every single computer user has used it at least once. However, due to a lack of competition, IE had begun to fall behind with updates. Mozilla’s timing couldn’t have been better. When Firefox was released, Internet users were caught fleeing from the monopoly of Microsoft’s dated browser. Ever since then, Firefox has been innovating and redefining the Internet for all of us.