Bangalore : Like great minds thinking alike, the Internet's two main competing browsers unveiled new improved versions just days apart last week.

For market leader Microsoft, the new version 7 of Internet Explorer is the first major revamp in five years. For Firefox, which inherited the Mozilla open source code of the pioneer browser, Netscape, version 2.0 comes just two years after its birth. The Hindu downloaded and evaluated both the new versions and found that the name of the game can be summed up in one phrase: playing catch-up.

New facility

Explorer finally provides its users — who make up between 85 to 90 per cent of all Net surfers — the ability to open multiple web pages within the same browser window and then stack them up in smaller size. This feature, known as tabbed browsing, has been one of the main reasons hardcore surfers flocked to Firefox. Both browsers now provide built-in search windows, so that one does not have to open a new Google, Yahoo or MSN page to search on a keyword. Both also address the major worry of users: Phishing, that is fraudulent web sites trying to extract sensitive information like pass words or credit card details from your desktop or key strokes. In different ways, the two browsers warn users when they apprehend a phishing attack.

The two browsers have improved the ability to receive RSS or Really Simple Syndication services of news and real time information `pushed' to your desktop. While Firefox adds a useful spell checker that looks over your shoulder as you type text in any web form, the new Explorer addresses a different pain: it dynamically downsizes type fonts in a web page so that the full width of the page is printed — without the right hand side getting chopped off.

After evaluating both new browser avatars, our suggestion to readers: upgrade whichever browser you are now using.

The two are now so similar in functionality, that it is just not worth the hassle of switching and getting used to a new look-and-feel. Internet Explorer 7 is the heftier download at just under 15 MB.

It can be found at www.microsoft.com/ieFirefox 2.0 is just under 5.5 MB in size and can be downloaded from www.getfirefox.com.

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