Browser wars heat up: IE9 versus Firefox 4

March is turning out to be a hot month for the browser wars, as two major browser makers tout the latest versions of their products this month. While Microsoft launched its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) browser earlier this week, Mozilla has set March 22 as the release date for Firefox version 4. "March 22nd is the day we would ship. Both IT and Marketing have indicated that March 22nd is an acceptable final launch date. If at any time we discover issues that would block final release, we would issue an RC2 (Release Candidate 2) as soon as possible, reset the ship date, and communicate to everyone," Mozilla's Damon Sicore said in a discussion thread. Both IE9 and Firefox 4 — or at least Firefox 4's Release Candidate — underwent major revamps and appeared to have taken cues from rival, Google Chrome. Chrome, which debuted in 2008, has supposedly gained a 10 percent share of the global browser market as of January 2011. Google's browser had gained favor for its minimalist appearance, and for innovative built-in features like a PDF reader, data syncing, and automatic translation. IE9 takes minimalist, 'color-coded' approach IE9, available for download from Microsoft this week, claims to show the "Beauty of the Web," taking a minimalist approach to allow more space for the website it displays. Unlike past versions of IE, in which buttons and toolbars clutter the browser window, IE 9 places all buttons - including refresh, stop, home, back and forward - in a single row. A second row featuring options for safety, tools and bookmarks, however, can be seen under the tab row. The address bar - called the One Bar - can handle web addresses and search functions, like Chrome. Alerts in IE are now found at the bottom of the window. The browser also borrows a page from Google's Chrome by integrating web address and search functions into a single box. While IE still lacked Chrome's features like a built-in PDF reader and translator, it has a notable feature: a color-coding for groups of opened tabs - each group getting a different color. Microsoft claimes IE 9 is now more compatible with Web standards, including HTML5. However, IE 9 may not be for everyone, as it is available only for users of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Firefox touts sync feature Like IE, Mozilla's Firefox took some cues from Google's Chrome, including putting tabs on top of the main toolbar. The release candidate of Firefox's latest browser also started up more quickly than its last stable version, 3.6. But while Firefox, like IE, still lacked Chrome's features like a built-in PDF reader and translator, it still had a built-in RSS subscription function. Firefox's release candidate also retains the two-box format, one for web addresses and one for search. But the web address bar, called the "Awesome Bar," is also capable of search. However, Firefox's newest feature —seemingly taken from Chrome, too— appears to be syncing data such as bookmarks, passwords, preferences, history, and tabs. To do this, one must create an account that will be used in the devices to be synced. This is similar to the syncing of bookmarks and passwords in Chrome, where the user logs in with his or her Google credentials. Chrome: cloud print Google released its latest version of Chrome - version 10 - earlier this month, with another new feature: cloud printing. With Cloud Print, devices with Chrome can set up a remote printer on an Internet-connected computer also running Google's Chrome. This works only on the latest version of Chrome running on a computer running Windows XP, Vista or 7 and connected to a printer. "For your printer to be connected to the Google Cloud, you must be logged into your Windows user account. Just as when your printer is offline, if you are using the Google Chrome proxy and your Windows user account is logged off, jobs will be saved and fetched normally when you log back in," Google said. — TJD, GMA News