Firefox 1.0 from Mozilla has arrived, and it is being touted by its supporters as the browser set to knock Internet Explorer off its perch as the number one browser across the world. So is this all nothing more than hype, or are we seeing a changing of the guard?
Once upon a time Netscape was the undisputed king of browsers, but the Netscape company made the mistake of charging users for the software. This, and the fact that Microsoft began bundling its Internet Explorer with every copy of Windows, sealed Netscape’s fate. The non-profit Mozilla organization took over the Netscape browser and continued to develop it. Mozilla eventually began to develop Firefox, essentially a distant descendent of Netscape which has returned onto the scene to take the challenge back to Explorer.
Almost eight million users have downloaded Firefox in the few months since its release, which may seem an impressive start, although in the scheme of things it’s really a drop in the ocean considering the scale of Internet Explorer’s dominance at present. However, most consumer surveys agree that Explorer is losing market share to a number of new alternatives including Firefox, Camino and Mozilla.
So why do internet surfers and web designers like Firefox so much? Quite simply, it has a number of important features which give it the edge over Explorer, particularly for Windows users. As the volume of internet advertising continues to spiral out of control, causing lost productivity and a significant amount of irritation, Firefox’s efficient pop-up ad blocker is a particularly valuable feature. There are also some very advanced security features onboard, including spyware protection. Firefox is easier to use for general surfing, as it has Google search built into the toolbar. It’s also much easier to view more than one page in a single window, and links can be kept in the background until they are ready to be viewed. Another handy feature is that users can receive regular instant news updates from selected syndicated sites.
There is no doubt that Firefox is on its way. How far it goes remains to be seen.
Author: Sufi Fanning
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