: IT WAS only a matter of time before Google ventured into the browser market. Now that it has, the open source Google Chrome (beta) is the result. After all, Google’s entire universe is the World Wide Web and an indigenous browser was only the next logical step. Not surprisingly, rival Microsoft, already competing with Mozilla Firefox and Opera in the browser arena, was forced to release a Beta version of Internet Explorer 8, with improvements and better stability. But, interestingly Chrome not only threatens IE’s market share, but also that of Firefox, which Google financed these last few years to take on Microsoft.
However, both Chrome and IE 8 are similar in one aspect. Each puts the user firmly into the parent company’s universe. While websites connected to the Microsoft domain, Facebook, Live, Hotmail etc load faster in IE 8, Chrome handles the Google gang of Gmail, Orkut, Google Maps a lot quicker.
While the new IE 8 claims to pack new features, it will not take too long for Firefox to release an add-on with the same features. And with Chrome and Firefox in the open source domain, they will still retain the customisation advantage over IE 8. With the two new releases and Firefox’s ever-growing popularity, the browser wars have just reloaded.
INTERNET EXPLORER 8
Downloading and installation: The 15.9 mb IE 8 setup file download took around 22 minutes on a 256 kbps broadband Internet connection after which it took a while longer to instal. IE 8 first scans for malicious software and then requires some update downloads and finally a systems restart for the user to begin surfing the web. Strangely enough, if express settings are used during the installation, IE 8 sets up Google as the preferred search engine and not Microsoft’s own Live search.
New features: IE 8 does not seem different from the earlier IE 7 user interface, but packs some new features including colour-coded tabs, activities, webslices, improvised phishing protection and new malware protection, a new favourites bar, automatic crash recovery and ‘in private’ browsing. Thankfully, IE 8 comes bundled with an “emulate IE 7” feature, which helps render pages as IE 7 does, as several pages are not yet capable of rendering pages for IE 8.
Colour-coded tabs: These improve the overall customer experience by inter-relating web pages. If you click on a link on one page, a new tab will open up right...
