The ignition of project Mozilla dates back to mid 1990’s. It all started when Netscape lost the battle with Microsoft over bundling of Internet Explorer browser into Windows. This event marked the end of dominance of Netscape Navigator and it soon started to lose its market share to IE. Netscape released its version 4 in the year 1997 but it was nothing as compared to IE4. It was high time for Netscape to bring something special which could outperform the Microsoft Internet Explorer if they even wish to turn tables around. So, Netscape announced the Mozilla Project in 1998 in which Netscape’s source code was thrown open for developer use. And within six years, a web browser was developed which was not only fast, lightweight but also performed every function better than IE. Yes, this browser is none other than Firefox, previously known as Firebird.

Security is a very big issue with Internet browsers. After all, there is no reason in entrusting a browser that has multiple security risks in it that can lead to identity theft, ruin one’s computer, or otherwise damage an investment that goes into every computer. Mozilla Firefox recognizes this, and likewise does not allow Active X components that are largely attributed to spyware and security holes. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, on the other hand, has long been associated with security risks that are usually wide open for months at a time- compared to the mere hours or days that Firefox can fix their security holes.

It’s interesting to note that disk space requirements of Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Internet Explorer will require a hefty 80 megabytes, while Mozilla Firefox only takes only 4.9 megabytes in disk space to operate- quite a healthy difference!

The Acid 2 test is a highly praised test that measures how well an Internet browser can display a webpage. Oddly enough, both Firefox and Internet Explorer fail this test respectively. But it should be noted that Firefox obtains a much higher score than Internet Explorer, who has an embarrassing low grade in browser rendering.

Any Firefox user is proud to brag to Internet Explorer users that they have access to colorful themes, helpful plug-ins, and powerful add-ons that help extend the functionality of the Firefox browser. Internet Explorer lags behind in this respect, as they are much more close ended in the ability to let browser users express themselves and their needs. Thus, Firefox is far more functional as a browser.

Firefox has long been given popularity due to the simple fact that it supports tabbed browsing. Some versions of Internet Explorer allow for this feat, but Internet Explorer doesn’t handle memory usage properly, and lagging is a common repercussion. Opera is another example of a browser that uses tabbed browsing, but expands on the idea by offering thumbnail previews.

One of the best known features of Firefox 2 is the fact that it offers the session restore ability. Far too often, browsers can crash for reasons beyond the developers. When and if this happens, users will lose everything they were doing. But with session restore, a user can restart a session that saved all URL data being browsed, as well as other helpful information that can make a browser crash much less irritating and counter productive to one’s goals.

The browser war will continue to be waged against contenders such as Internet Explorer and Firefox. But as both browsers strive to compete and achieve things such as passing the Acid 2 test, consumers will have to wait and see who will come out on top in the end.