❏This vs That ❐: Internet Explorer 9 vs Firefox 4 and Chrome 10

Welcome to Thursday's

Internet Explorer 9 vs Firefox 4

and Chrome 10

Well guys, I've finally decided to download that new IE9, (which works with all versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7), since I was curious to see how much of a difference it would be. (Go here to download the version of your choice.)

Right off the top, the shorter, streamlined installation of Internet Explorer 9 is faster than previous versions. It requires fewer decisions on your part, takes less time to load pages, and doesn’t require that you install updates separately. Once it's installed, you're ready to start browsing.

There are a lot of areas Microsoft has improved on in IE9 such as:

• Their fast start up and shutdown to allow more browsing time,
• Their view and manage add-ons performance with the Add-on Performance Advisor that works by identifying add-ons that may be slowing down your browser and—right from the notification area—giving you the information you need to disable the add-on or fix the problem. Load times for each add-on are shown so you can see how each one impacts your browsing experience.



Add-on Performance Advisor

• The new browser frame which is more streamlined and simplified.   The back button is larger, the Address bar and search box are combined into one new Address bar, and the multiple menus from previous versions of Internet Explorer are consolidated into a single menu. The result? You'll only see what's essential to your browsing experience on the Internet today.

• Compatibility view has improved also.  Sometimes the website you’re visiting doesn't look right. It shows up as a jumble of out-of-place menus, images, and text boxes. What's going on? One possible explanation: The site might have been designed for an earlier version of Internet Explorer. If Internet Explorer recognizes that the webpage isn't compatible, you'll see the Compatibility View button on the Address bar. Try clicking it.  In Compatibility View, websites will be displayed as if you were viewing them in a previous version of Internet Explorer, which will often correct display problems. You don’t need to click the button for a site after you’ve done it once—the next time you visit the site, Internet Explorer 9 will automatically show it in Compatibility View. (If you ever want to go back to browsing with Internet Explorer 9 on that site, just click the Compatibility View button again.)

And these are but just a few improvements of IE9.  I mean, I could go on and on.   Anyways, in regards to comparing it to Firefox 4 and Chrome 10, the best way, I thought, was by showing it using the chart:

Performance	Firefox 4	Chrome 10	Internet Explorer 9
Fast startup and shutdown
Fast JavaScript engine for better performance
Popular websites load quickly
Full hardware acceleration for text, graphics, and video provided by default
Notification when add-ons slow browser performance

Ease of Use
Simple browsing controls for a better browsing experience
Change and add search providers within the search box
Search provider suggestions as you type in the search box
New Tab page includes quick access to common tasks and your favorite sites
Websites can be pinned to the taskbar in Windows 7
Tear-off tabs with Windows 7‌ Aero Snap
Reopen accidentally closed tabs
Combined search and Address bar
Visual search suggestions shown as you type
Jump Lists and thumbnail preview controls for pinned sites
Accelerators for quick access to web services without leaving the page

Security
Protection from malicious cross-site scripting attacks
Best protection against phishing attacks
Domain name highlighting in the Address bar to alert you to deceptive websites
Most protection against socially engineered malware

Reliability
Crashed tabs stay isolated from all other tabs
Automatic recovery of crashed tabs
Tab recovery with messaging and prompting when websites time out

Privacy
Prevent others from seeing what sites you have visited on your PC
Control whether certain third parties can track your browsing activity

Web Standards and Compatibility
Supports standards both commonly used today and for building tomorrow’s websites, including HTML5
WebM-encoded HTML5 video supported when a VP8 codec is installed on Windows
H.264-encoded HTML5 video support
Compatibility mode to view websites designed for older browsers

Developer Tools
Comprehensive tool set (HTML, CSS, JavaScript editing, profiling, network inspection)
Developer tools built-in to the browser
Tools that show pages in different rendering engines to let developers understand and debug browser differences

Conclusion:

When it's all said and done, IE9 actually out performed Firefox 4 and Chrome 10 in areas such as performance, browsing and security.  Some of their great features includes:

One-Box navigate and search

• One-Box - for navigating and searching the web all in one place.  Start typing and you'll see results from your history or favorites.  And if you turn on Search results, you'll get suggestions from search providers too.  As you type, auto-complete anticipates what you are looking for so there is no need to remember the complete full web address.
• Pinned Sites - Pinning a site takes seconds: you can drag a web page to the task bar.  Just click the icon to the left of the web address in One Box, or the tab for the website, or the website's icon on the New Tab page, and then drag it to the taskbar. That's it.
  
  Once a site is pinned, it shows up as its own thumbnail, separate from Internet Explorer. Now all it takes is one click to get to your favorite website.  You can get to your favorite sites directly from the Windows taskbar—without having to open Internet Explorer first.  Firefox and Chrome don't seem to be able to do this.
• Web-focus browsing - As mentioned earlier, the back button is larger, the Address bar and search box are combined into one new Address bar, and the multiple menus from previous versions of Internet Explorer are consolidated into a single menu.  The new IE9 browsers are streamlined and simplified.
• The Notification Bar - Instead of dialog boxes popping up unexpectedly and getting in your way, all notification messages are consolidated in the Notification Bar, located at the bottom of the browser frame. Notifications won't interrupt your browsing by forcing you to act on them before you can continue. Chrome does this too, but Firefox doesn't!You can ignore them if you choose and act on them whenever you like. What's more, you'll find that the messages, error notifications, and warnings you see in the Notification Bar are more informative, easier to understand, and most importantly, easier to act on. 
• Download Manager - Internet Explorer 9 has an integrated way for you to access, monitor, and interact with the files you download: Download Manager. It's a single program that lets you see the status of your downloads, provides information about whether they might be potentially harmful, offers a full range of security checks on the downloaded files, and shows you the final location of your downloads.  Both Firefox and Chrome have download view windows but provides very little in terms of management.
• Enhancement tabs - With Internet Explorer 9, web navigation and multitasking are easier than ever.  By default, tabs are shown to the right of the Address bar but you can move them below the address bar in a row all on their own, or you have the 'tear-off' tabs where you can rearrange tabs like you do icons, or the color-coded tabs whereby if you're like me with a million tabs open - tabs that are related are color coded making it easier to stay organized while browsing multiple webpages!

Tabs shown first to the right of address bar then below

multi-coloured tabs

And with their SmartScreen Filter with built-in protection to help keep you safer online, Tracking Protection, Download Manager and Tab Isolation and Recovery features, it's easy to see why IE9 could become the browser of choice for many.  The only disadvantage or should I say drawback to the new IE9 - it's only available for Windows 7 or Windows Vista!
Eventually, IE10 will also only be supported on Windows 7 or later... but that's another post to be done another time.

So go ahead and try it out!  Tell me what you think about it if you do.

Thanks for reading.

Resources:  microsoft.com, wikipedia,