Internet Explorer 7 vs. Firefox 2

By Robert Vamosi on 30 October 2006

Judges: Rafe Needleman, Peter Butler and Elsa Wenzel

For years, Microsoft Internet Explorer has enjoyed near dominance of the Web browser space -- but not any more. Since the release last year of Mozilla Firefox 1.5, Firefox has been steadily eroding Internet Explorer's claim of superiority. According to information from NetApplications.com, in October 2004 Internet Explorer had 92 percent of the market; in September 2005 that dropped to 86 percent; and as of September 2006 Internet Explorer's market share dropped to 82 percent, with Firefox's rising to 12.5 percent. In two years Microsoft ceded 10 percent of its audience to its competition.

So how do the latest versions of each browser compare? For this prizefight, we looked at Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft's first new Internet browser since 2001, and Mozilla Firefox 2, Mozilla's update of its popular Firefox 1.5 browser released in November 2005. I've already had my two cents' in the above reviews, so I've turned over this prizefight to my colleagues at CNET who specifically cover the Web services beat.

About the judges:

Rafe Needleman, editor at large for CNET, covers new online applications and is launching a new CNET Web site about them: Webware.com.

Peter Butler is senior editor for CNET in charge of Download.com reviews.

Elsa Wenzel is an associate editor for CNET who reviews hulking office suites, tiny apps, and Web services.

Topics: ie7, browser, explorer, firefox, internet, microsoft, mozilla, tab, round, browse

Related Articles

Comments (33)

  • Roberto Przybylski commented on 09/12/2008 11:15 Report abuse

    I have tested both extensively and ended up utilizing the IE7. There`s no comparison, the Internet Explorer 7 is far better than Firefox in every sense. I could not find a single feature in which firefox has any advantage. IE7 10 x 01 Firefox

  • Jose commented on 29/10/2008 12:00 Report abuse

    About the very first comment on this page. You would preffer the analysis of a an ignorant to that of a person with knowledge on the theme???? An analysis of browsers is allways going to have some degree of biasing. Its inevitable because in order to be able to provide your inputs on them you have to had used them for a while... This is going to be a fair analysis as it is to compare Windows to Linux...

  • I WIN commented on 03/05/2008 14:03 Report abuse

    very biased in my opinion. notice that they do not compare firefox with the number 1 browser(opera) and of course, they wouldnt because the reviewers would have to admit that opera is better.

  • msorellio commented on 01/12/2007 05:07 Report abuse

    I work for Mozilla and actually found the IE 7 browser faster with more modern hardware like Intel Dual-Core hardware. Our Gecko engine was not optimized like Microsoft's rendering engine since Microsoft has intimate knowledge of the Dual Core pipeline architecture. An unforseen advantage for us. Yes the tabs are a bit clunkier but IE7 on higher end machines blows FF2/FF3 out of the water. Marcus Sorellio Firefox lead engineer

  • jonny239 commented on 29/10/2007 10:32 Report abuse

    i like ff but will use ie7 with ie7 pro untill ff fixes there hugh memory leak which drains my 2 gb of ram over night this reveiw is toaly bios and i expected more from cnet

  • vinitneo commented on 25/07/2007 19:47 Report abuse

    good review .I'm a Firefox fan. I think it is a cool browser. Although I'm a Microsoft fan & aspire to work there & found Internet explorer 7 impressive ... I still prefer Mozilla Firefox.

  • smoz06 commented on 01/06/2007 19:20 Report abuse

    Well I have just started using firefox, yes I do like it it is much smoother than ie7 and runs better, but if anyone knows a fix to not being able to load bigpond, pls tell me, oh and netbank, copy and paste setup into excell that doesn't work well either: Im a neuatral user, myself so thats an honest opinion:

  • apuening@fuse.net commented on 22/05/2007 02:39 Report abuse

    Why don't you compare the speeds and resolution,I don't care about the extra buttons and junk of security I use two store bought spywares at a time and paid top Antvirus and cleaners ...free stuff is junkier.

  • mike commented on 08/05/2007 01:32 Report abuse

    this maybe a biased artical, but thats not the reason i decided to post. I hate the way people blindly go arround claiming open source software is bug free and billions of times more secure than windows and microsoft products. The only reason microsoft products appear flawed is because it is so widly adopted a little bug can spiral out of control, whereas open source is not such a target for viruses and malware. I also think people these days mis-interprate the purpose of a beta, since microsoft publicly beta test now and bug numbers are released people think the software must be rubbish, but linux isnt written like that is it, and what do you think bugzilla is for??

  • chetan commented on 02/05/2007 06:10 Report abuse

    just BIASED

Post your own comment

Submit

Enter your personal information to the left, or sign in with your Facebook account by clicking the button below.

Connect
Nokia E75 Email made easy. Find out why.
Your iPhone will be happier with Optus.

Must read