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The last couple of weeks have been an interesting time for web developers.  Both Microsoft and Mozilla have released the latest versions of their internet browsers.  Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 both came out about the same time, each with various improvements to their respective predecessor. 

The overall changes made to IE7 are tremendous.  Tabbed browsing, RSS support, smarter printing options and numerous security improvements have made it easier for surfers to reach new channels of the web and make already existing websites more compatible.  Microsoft also started identifying phishing sites – sites that pretend to be other sites like ebay or paypal.

Firefox 2’s overall improvement appears, on the surface, to be less significant compared to IE7.  Firefox already had tabbed browsing, RSS support and recognized suspicious websites, however, Mozilla made several tweaks and minor adjustments to the browser.  For instance, closing a browser tab is now made by the small red ‘x’ button within the tab rather than at the edge of the browser window.  The biggest improvements to this version are the inline spell checker and the ability to continue surfing from where you left off in case your machine crashes.

Each browser isn’t without its faults however.  With each major software revision, there will always be a bug that won’t be discovered until the software hits the real world.  IE7 has already been pinned with two bugs involving security vulnerabilities. Firefox has some general compatibility problems, and some users reported losing their bookmarks after the update.

Which brings me to an important point, having worked in many areas of the IT industry, be it tech support, system administrator, web designer or otherwise, I’ve seen all the worst case scenarios for updating software.  And while I highly recommend these updates, I can not stress enough how important it it to back up your data.  Bookmarks and saved passwords make it really easy to be online, but if you lose your data due to an unforeseeable error, you will say things to your computer that would scare your ancestors.  I’ll admit, when a software update comes available, I am one of the first to install it.  Consequences be damned, I want the latest and greatest.  But I’ve also reinstalled my operating system eight times this summer.

Precautions aside, these two browsers are better now than they have ever been (especially IE7).  The rendering differences between today’s major browsers are getting smaller and smaller.  That means they are getting closer to looking the same when viewing a website.  From a web designers stand point, that is incredibly important.  Between Netscape 6, Safari, Opera, IE5 for Mac, IE6 for Windows, etc. it’s overwhelming to have to write a web page that looks the same on each browser and platform.  A few of years ago, web designers took up the call of Jeffery Zeldman and others to say the hell with bad browsers and to simply write code within the confines of HTML standards rather than “hacking” the code to fit within the confines of each browser.  Today, while most web designers are successful in writing “the one version” of a website, they still end up spending three times the effort than they should to make it look the same for all browsers.  IE7 and Firefox 2 both have made significant improvements in recognizing web standards.  Their perspectives on how they approached that goal differs.  For Firefox, their goals for rendering standards are a matter of refining what they already had.  The numerous problems web designers face rarely land in their park.  In fact, Firefox is very forgiving of bad code, much more so than iCab, a mac browser which was notorious reporting non-compliant HTML (talk about a stickler).  IE7, considered a culprit in not handling CSS box model properties, and other designer challenges, had to prioritize which errors they were going to address: mainly the real world problems.  Now, the only problem is having to go back through the code and remove the old IE6 hacks designers worked so hard for.

So far, the updates to both Firefox 2 and IE7 have been very popular.  IE7 downloads topped 4 million within the first three days of its release and Firefox 2 had 2 million downloads within the first 24 hours - about 30 downloads a second.  That doesn’t mean everyone is jumping on board, this may simply be the testing of the waters with a new browser.

Which is the better of the two?  I’m not going to say hands down what browser is the best option.  After all, I’m on a Mac.  But by all means, I highly recommend you update to either one because the websites you visit will eventually no longer work on older browsers.  All those pre-IE7 sites (with their coding hacks) are going to get fixed and the differences between IE6 and 7, and future versions, are divergent enough to affect overall usability.  The browsers wars of 1996 may have ended. Internet Explorer became the dominant victor and Netscape the loser, but Mozilla’s recent trend for sticking it to the man has rekindled the battle for dominance once again.  When you consider how competitive the two have become, Firefox and IE are going to be offering more improvements and better browsing for everyone.

Not only that, but consider other factors playing into web technology.  LCD displays are cheaper than they have ever been.  Monitor resolution has gone up from 72 dpi to 100 dpi in just two years.  It’s predicted that flat screen television sales will surpass the tube sales this holiday season.  The technology is getting so much better that screen resolution will surpass operating system resolution and website resolution.  How soon until your browser starts supporting Web HD?

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