[Ecommerce] BBC prefers Firefox

[Manon Ress]

Browsers go head-to-head
Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6086798.stm

The top two browsing programs of net users got a big update this
month as Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Mozilla
unleashed Firefox 2.0. Here we take a quick spin through some of the
features to be seen in the new versions.

Microsoft's IE7 program is the beefier of the two browsers with the
download package weighing in at 14.8 megabytes (MB). By contrast
Firefox is a svelte 5.4MB. However, neither should tax a broadband
connection.

Differences start to show up once the software is downloaded. Once it
is done installing, IE7 demands a re-start before you can use it.
Firefox installs without that need. It's a minor difference and a
minor inconvenience for those that choose Internet Explorer.

Both take about the same amount of time to install and get started-up
but once they are running more subtle differences start to become
apparent.

At first glance Firefox 2.0 looks more familiar as its main page
layout hardly differs from earlier versions.

But IE7 does look changed because, for a start, the grey menu bar is
hidden. It can be resurrected by hitting the "alt" key but you might
be surprised by how much you need to call on it when you can't find it.

Hidden information

With IE7 Microsoft has brought tabs to its browser but both deal with
them in slightly different ways.

With IE7 a blank tab is always available but with Firefox the new tab
only appears, and takes up some screen space, when you open one up.

Microsoft browser upgrade

IE7 has a neat feature that lets you see thumbnails of all of the
tabs you have open at any one time, letting you leap to the one you
need with a click.

However, it seems to take a moment longer than Firefox 2.0 to close
tabs when you are done with them.

Opening up quite a few webpages in each browser shows up another
quirk. Firefox 2.0 seems to do a better job of using the text that
webpages use to describe themselves.

Often in IE7, the only information you get about a webpage you have
open but hidden on the bottom taskbar is "http://" - the rest of the
title is obscured.

Again, a minor difference and a minor niggle.

Searching a webpage is still more elegant in Firefox 2.0 than IE7.

Calling up the search function in Firefox prompts the appearance of a
text box tied to the bottom of the page and typing your search term
in that takes you to the first appearance of that word or phrase on
the page - provided it is there, of course.

In IE searching calls up a floating box in which you have to type
your text and then click or hit a key to find the term or phrase.

Feeding frenzy

One of the very useful inclusions in Firefox 2.0 is a live spell
checker that watches over your metaphorical shoulder as you type text
into any field on any webpage. It is possible to add a similar
function to IE7 but only via an add-on.

Firefox browser for web 2.0

It will be interesting to see how many people download and install it.

When it comes to RSS - the system that feeds updates of webpages to
those interested - Firefox 2.0 does a slightly better job of making
it easy to subscribe to new feeds.

With only a click it was possible to add a feed to popular blog-
following sites such as Bloglines to IE7 and Firefox

Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 also benefit from thousands of plug-
ins, or add-ons - that can be installed to add more functionality to
the browser.

These range from RSS readers to Instant Messaging clients, Voice over
IP programs, and mini iTunes controls - all accessed from inside the
web browser page.

Finally, both IE7 and Firefox 2.0 have introduced systems that warn
users when they are about to visit a site that is known to be used by
phishing gangs. These pages are made to look like that of a bank to
trick people into handing over confidential information.

Firefox handles this by updating a locally held list of known
phishing sites every time you use the browser.

Microsoft's IE7 checks in via the web to make sure a site is safe to
visit. In the short tests run by the BBC news website, IE7
occasionally took longer to load a page as it carried out a check to
see if it was a phishing site.

Despite these minor differences, Firefox 2.0 and IE7 are now broadly
comparable - something that could not be said of IE6 and Firefox. But
it will be up to users to choose which one best meets their needs.

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Ext 16 Fax: +1.202.332.2673

Consumer Project on Technology
1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727

Consumer Project on Technology
24 Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX, UK
Tel: +44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252 Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607