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.
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me
30/10/2006 02:25 PM
What an incredibly biased article. I don't use Internet Explorer except when necessary but would still prefer if such comparisons were done by people who have a vague idea of what they're talking about. You're giving out points in the security section while admitting you don't have any idea what you're talking about, for God's sake.
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anonymous
30/10/2006 02:42 PM
Agreed. The review is so biased that we can't get useful information out of it. I'm a Firefox user but would like to see a more objective article from CNET. This is just a disgrace. CNET should take it off from the web.
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Keith Hopkins
30/10/2006 03:11 PM
My god, what a big load of balony. Why didn't you just get the Firefox people to write this "comparison" for you.
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Adam
30/10/2006 07:07 PM
Good god could that comparison have been anymore biased? Even when they said IE7 did things better they gave it worse marks. This is one of the worst comparisons I have ever seen. Even though Firefox is the better browser these sorts of comparisons certainly aren't helpful.
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Paul Sveda
30/10/2006 11:48 PM
Even as a fan of Firefox I can’t call this a balanced and fair comparison of the two browsers. As a developer I have to test across a number of browsers and their respective versions and I can find strengths and weaknesses in even the worst of them. Your review however reads like the ramblings of Firefox fan boys and fan girls set loose in some IE/FF discussion thread. Just another reason and disappointing example of why I read less of CNET and encourage customers and friends to seek better sources of reviews and information.
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Dan Hillman
31/10/2006 09:51 AM
Glad you liked it guys, I did too. Sadly the article seem more Mozilla comercial than review... It is so blaitantly baised that it is of no use to me.
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Arbiter
31/10/2006 10:16 AM
I sit here viewing this article through Opera and wonder what all the fuss is about. In terms of mainstream market share - Opera is not there. In terms of features and funtionality - Opera is light years ahead.
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dropx
31/10/2006 01:54 PM
welcome to the world of google and firefox. Regardless of their quality, people have this blind perception. No matter what they do it always rocks. Worst review I have ever read. How can they even comment about security??? OMG
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firefoxed
01/11/2006 01:38 PM
Here's an IE vs. Firefox game http://cognitivelabs.com/firefox_vsIE_game.htm beg pardon, it's not fair and balanced
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Scott
02/11/2006 04:09 PM
wow, I am a huge fan of firefox, but this is one of the worst, if not THE worst and most biased review I have read. Your experts are little better than poorly educated users that have little understanding of either firefox or IE and absolutely NO knowlegde about security. Why even bother doing a review if your not going to do it properly?
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Anon
07/11/2006 08:23 PM
I've been using Firefox exclusively for about 6 months but I am now leaning back towards IE7. Update of Firefox was not simple - I actually had to uninstall and reinstall it due to a problem with the interface (I couldn't type in an address). Also the music download site I use only supports IE and actually fails to work with Firefox.
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Tom
09/11/2006 04:21 AM
if u got firefox people to write reviews of ie7 and ff2 they would be bias to ff which is not really that good to the average browser. i personally use ie7 at home and opera at school cos he still have ie6. i don't like firefox one bit. its overrated rubbish and people just want to knock ie7 because microsoft made it. Windows is better than linux, ive been on linux and mac os x and i always go with windows. same with ie6 and 7. i tried the alternatives and always found myself going back to ie! ive used windows and ie since 1999 and had to viruses and no problems with ie! if u just download software from reputable sources and dont visit dodgy sites then you will have no problems!
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ed
20/12/2006 11:37 AM
This is SO BIASED! IE 7 has many better features--it doesn't keep getting blocked by my Norton Anti virus like Norton does! You should revise it--the competition wasn't fair.
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Jack Summer
29/12/2006 01:39 PM
The basic problem with Firefox is the fact that most websites are designed for the Internet Explorer. For whatever reason, Firefox interprets html and xml commands much differently than IE and also has different protocols for plug-ins such as the Flash player. When designing a website, which browser do you go by? Obviously, you go with IE since it is an integral part of Windows. Firefox, I beliece, needs to be more conforming to Microsoft in terms of web page commands
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John
10/01/2007 09:15 AM
I prefer Firefox, but I agree that several sites are designed and tested mainly versus Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is at version 7, but despite the high revision number, it is not the perfect product as hyped by Microsoft.
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serguei
04/02/2007 02:40 AM
The "mulas" felow the same path, Internet, Microsoft, Office. A better world is possible, Open Source, GNU. Firefox is the best.
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Just Wondering
06/02/2007 02:38 AM
I'll admit, too, that it might have been a biased article, but it would be an interesting investigation to see how many 'anonymous' posters here work for Microsoft.
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mr. glitch
16/02/2007 02:36 AM
IE7 is an FF version of microsoft. No wonder it took 4 years for a new version IE. Same with vista and linux. People should really give points to the happy open source community.. Multiple brains still wins.. dump microsoft!
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Stuck behind a Firewall
16/02/2007 04:07 AM
The reason why all web pages don't display the same in Firefox and IE is because the sites that don't display correctly use propietary coding for IE. In other words, it's IE that doesn't follow standard protocall. Firefox shouldn't have to conform to IE.
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Mr. Baffled
19/02/2007 06:18 PM
Most of the readers already stated that the article was biased, so I won't heave to do that again. What I was wondering: how can any magazine, be it hard copy or electronical, publish without any shame such an article? Don't you guys think that every future article you write will be received with same biased feelings?
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skeetdog
21/02/2007 10:11 AM
Mozilla Firefox was allways packing up on my computer saying page not loading getting that all the time that why I went back To Internet Explorer 7
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ITprosupport
01/04/2007 03:45 PM
As an IT professional that has pro supported XP,IE7 and currently Vista I am biased.However the reveiwers of these browsers are a joke. Come on firefox security??Yes security by obscurity! Yes when you have 85% of the world browser market you are a target. But as for tabs IE7 has all the tab features of firefox, plus i can open 47 tabs in vista on IE7 without and performance loss but only 14 in firefox. The easiest way to introduce browser instability and lower platform security is to stuff it full of add-ons and extensions. I use 2 browsers and always have, I would recommend this to anyone,but this review is so blatantly biased and inaccurate it is down right embaressing. IE7 will continue to hold 80-90% of the market and as firefox grows and becomes a target we will see how secure it really is! I hope readers take time to read several reveiws before they leap to judgement on IE7. regards...
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Darlene
10/04/2007 08:18 AM
My websites display correctly in IE not with Firefox
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chetan
02/05/2007 06:10 AM
just BIASED
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mike
08/05/2007 01:32 AM
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??
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apuening@fuse.net
22/05/2007 02:39 AM
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.
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smoz06
01/06/2007 07:20 PM
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:
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vinitneo
25/07/2007 07:47 PM
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.
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jonny239
29/10/2007 10:32 AM
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
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msorellio
01/12/2007 05:07 AM
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
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I WIN
03/05/2008 02:03 PM
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.
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