Mozilla Firefox reaches the highest place on the podium in 2007 proving everybody it's the best web browser at present. Although relatively new in an internet scene where Internet Explorer dominates the market, Firefox Release 2 beats all the competitors due to the superiority of its innovative and amazing features. In 2007 Firefox wins serveral awards as the best web browser in its category (see PC Magazine, CNET, WebWare).

Mozilla Firefox 2 is nowadays the most stable, usable, fast and customizable web browser in the world thanks to the ongoing effort of its developers, the Mozilla Foundation, one of the biggest "Open Source" community in the world.

Firefox outstanding features include
pop-up blocking; a tab-browsing; integrated Google
searching; spell checking, anti-phishing and other advanced security features, simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively; a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser; automatic session-restore function and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

The net result is that Mozilla Firefox is a complete, fast, full-featured Web browser that makes browsing more efficient than ever before.

 

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Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Internet Explorer is the most used web browser in the world (in US, the 57% of the market share according to July 2007 statistics). Even though it's not the most usable and performing browser in the market according to CNET (see Web Browser Awards 2007), Internet Explorer still represents one of the best choices an internet user can make when it comes to browsing the internet.

Internet Explorer Release 7.0 (November 2006) has represented a big step forward in comparison to the previous version (IE 6.0). Internet Explorer 7 provides improved navigation through tabbed browsing, web search from the toolbar, advanced printing, easy discovery, reading and subscription to RSS feeds.

New features are advanced printing (automatically scales a webpage for printing), instant search box, Favorites Center, RSS feeds (automatically detects RSS feeds), tabbed browsing (view multiple sites in a single browser window), quick tabs, Tab Groups, page zoom.

All in all, Internet Explorer is still one of the best browsers around although I reckon Mozilla Firefox 2 is superior due to an easier user interface, a higher standard of security and a more advanced usability of the product. If you are still undecided, watch this video to make your decision. This funny video is a one-to-one "Prize-Fight" between Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 (author: CNET) in which Firefox 2 prevails as the winner of the "match".

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Overall Rating: 3 / 5

If you are an Apple products lover (i-phone, i-pod, etc.), maybe Safari is the browser for you! Safari 3 personifies all the natural characteristics (style, design, etc.) that made Apple's products famous in the world.

At a first glance, the Safari browser presents an original and elegant interface. But there's more than that! Innovative features include a bookmark management scheme that functions like the iTunes jukebox software, Apple's QuickTime multimedia technology integration and tabbed-browsing. A Google search box is a standard component as are software services that automatically fill out web forms, manage passwords via Keychain and spell check entries into web page text fields. The browser also includes an integrated pop-up ad blocker. An associated software from Apple is the Web Inspector, a DOM Inspector-like utility that lets users and developers browse the Document Object Model of a web page. Other features are: inline find, SnapBack, built-in RSS, resizable text fields, private browsing, improved stability.

All considered, Safari 3 is a very advanced and stilish browser but, still, cannot compete against Firefox 2. Safari gets to a website slower than Firefox, there's no way to customize it (e.g., adding skins) plus it gives problems when printing (the browser crashes, although the print job is successful). In the Windows version, Safari's interface doesn't exactly match the Windows GUI, the installation process takes too long and there are still some bugs in the software as the support is limited.

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Overall Rating: 3 / 5

The motto of Opera has always been one: develop the quickest, smallest and most full-featured browser available! And the latest version maintains the tradition. Not only Opera 9.23 keeps safe all the basics (tabbed browsing, search bar, advanced bookmarks tools, and easy integration with your favorite e-mail client and chat provider, mouse-gesture support, keyboard shortcuts, and drag-and-drop functionality further enhance your surfing experience), but also pushes it to the top of the class with some innovative extra features.

Integrated theme support lets you preview themes from within the interface; Widgets are small. The Wand utility combines autofill with saved passwords. Opera comes with torrent support and real-time fraud protection for safer browsing. A new feature in version 9.2, Speed Dial, permanently assigns bookmarks and tabs any digit from one through nine. When you enter one of those numbers into the URL bar, the corresponding site loads when you hit enter.

Overall, I think Opera might have what it takes to unseat even the biggest-name browsers if users give it the opportunity. I especially enjoyed the Speed Dial feature. But in our opinion Opera has still to move a little bit forward if it wants to keep up with the best players, especially if we consider the user interface and the usability of the most advanced features.

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