Compare and contrast: Firefox 10 vs. Internet Explorer 9

The domain of web browsers has always been packed with competition and intense challenge of providing the most to the user. Generally, most of people mea
Internet Explorer (IE) as a browser because it has carved a niche among users as a synonym of internet browsing. However, now the scenario has changed after other popular browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome were introduced to dilute the IE market share.

This article is an effort to make you aware with the pros and cons of two leading web browsers, Firefox 10 and Internet Explorer 9. It is an evaluation of both these browsers:

Interface

While looking simultaneously at Firefox and IE 9, undoubtedly IE 9 has an attractive interface. The icon-only interface looks really modern and less space occupying. Nothing can match its ability to express while you are using it for small displays but it will look stretched on a larger display. On the contrary, Firefox makes a better choice for a larger display. The interface adopted by Firefox speaks volumes about its suitability for a larger display with its tabs that have their own space.
Few more features make Firefox a browser with better interface while placed against IE 9. You get a better bookmarks toolbar for bookmarking with which you can drag and drop. So far IE 9 hasn’t come up with an equivalent feature.

Performance

There is a very narrow margin while looking at the performance of the two browsers. Nevertheless, some obvious things come out when you look at them with an expert eye. IE 9 is found to be smooth and quick in loading web pages however, the same couldn’t be said about the Firefox. The same continues while opening new tabs as Firefox takes a little more time tha
IE 9.Add-ons

Add ons is the area in which IE 9 has lot of scope for improvement. It is a feature that is continuously disregarded by IE. However, efforts have been invested to make it advanced with the reset button to disable all add-ons and customization.

On the contrary, Firefox has been continuously focusing on this area to make add-on management, user friendly, lucid and more beneficial. The add-on site of Firefox is something from which others can learn. Its improved in-built add-on manager can cure many of the issues that has come up while managing add-ons with your browser.

Security

Being an open source web browser, Firefox is not very reliable as compared to IE that offers plenty of security features that are easy to configure and tweak. Security zones have been classified by Microsoft as ‘Internet’, ‘Trusted sites’, ‘Local intranet’, and ‘Restricted sites’. Each of these categories can be customized to suit the requirement of a particular user. So undoubtedly, IE 9 has better security features tha
Firefox.

Wrap up

After looking at the above stated features and benefits of both the browsers it is not very difficult to reach a conclusion regarding the best available browser today. In all the three aspects, Firefox is giving a tough contest to IE 9. Although Firefox 10 has not incorporated many changes in design as compared to Firefox 9, nevertheless some of them are really impressive. Improvements as bug fixes, an auto-hiding forward button, better extension management, CSS3 capabilities improvement and others are some that has put it ahead of the rest.