Web Browser Wars Return To Surfer Benefit

The world of the Internet browser has been a pendulum, of sorts, since the Internet first started to become a factor in people's lives in the early and mid-1990's.

Back then, Netscape's Navigator software ruled the Web browser world for PC's, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer was looked upon as a poor stepchild in comparison by most users.

This lack of focus was in large part due to the vision, or in this case lack thereof, of founder Bill Gates, who in 1993 was quoted as saying “The Internet? We are not interested in it”.

It didn't take long for Gates to realize his mistake, and by the time Windows 98 was released, Microsoft had developed and integrated a Web browser into Windows.

Internet Explorer had also rapidly became more functional, while Netscape's Navigator seemed content to largely hold its ground, largely failing to see the impact multimedia would eventually have on the Web.

In 1999 Netscape was purchased by America Online, who many thought made the purchase to switch its then-dominant AOL Internet access service away from using an integrated version of Internet Explorer.

However, that effort was stillborn, and AOL was never released, short of a single Beta version, with Netscape as the integrated browser.

For several years, Internet Explorer continued as the unchallenged leader in Web browsers, but also failed to do much additional development. Again, this lack of focus created an opportunity for other players to gain a foothold, which has now become a full-fledged competition again.

As Web pages have become more complex and media intensive, the pressure on the Web browser to use as few system resources as possible while rendering as much content as possible has grown considerably.

One of Microsoft's biggest problems has become its overriding goal of security, which has led it to hamstring Internet Explorer's functionality, and make the process of acquiring Internet content both cumbersome and resource intensive.

The reality has been that this security has become so onerous as to cause some users to switch it off almost entirely, while others have set out in search of a less difficult browsing experience.

The biggest winner in all of this has been Mozilla's Firefox, which has grown in three years from near-zero to nearly 15% of the browser market as of October, 2007.

Firefox was the one of first to offer tabbed browsing, allowing users to open tabs, rather than new windows, for each Web page visited. It also integrated an anti-phishing scheme to prevent browser redirects and takeovers.

Firefox was born of developer desires to strip down the browser and let users add on specific features as needed, rather than bloating the browser with more and more features many users didn't need, and slowing the entire experience as a result.

My recent experiences have been that certain Web sites including GMail and MySpace often render faster, and better, with Firefox than they do with Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 7 had a ton of bugs when it was released, and although many of those have now been resolved, it still often has trouble with certain Web sites, especially those with lots of content it sometimes fails to properly cache.

So, if you're looking for an alternative Web experience, try Firefox. It too has its quirks and issues, but it's a worthy add to most PC's.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.