Games Gadgets n Technology

The long-awaited upgrade to Microsoft’s Web browser is here, introducing the masses to features available for years in rival products.

My initial thought to Microsoft’s game of catch-up was “no big deal.” But after trying out Internet Explorer v7 – the first major release since 2001 – I found a number of improvements to like.

The most noticeable change in IE is a redesign that replaces menus like “file” and “edit” with task-oriented buttons for printing, searching and the like.

Just as Google’s folder-less approach to e-mail took getting used to, Microsoft’s new interface initially will seem odd. But, in no time, I started questioning the old ways – why, for instance, was “print” under “file” and not “view”?

Microsoft’s new features include the display of small, thumbnail versions of all open pages at once. It catches up with rivals, Opera and Firefox, in letting you save related tabs in groups to reopen at once. But IE7 lacks Firefox’s and Opera’s ability to reopen a tab you’ve accidentally closed.

Search still Firefox-ed

When it comes to search, Firefox is tops; offering the easiest ways to add search engines and organise them within your search box. In addition, as you start typing in your search, Firefox offers suggestions to finish the query.

All three now support Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a technology for notifying users of new entries on their favourite news sites and blogs.

The three Web browsers also have easy ways to clear private data, such as cookies and browsing history, and to restore open pages the next time you use the browser.

IE7 now lets you enlarge and shrink images along with the text, a feature Opera had before. And IE7 matches Firefox’s and Opera’s ability to automatically shrink Web pages when you print so margins don’t get cut off.

Not so Active X anymore...

Microsoft introduced a number of security features: Active X controls, which are used to make Web sites more functional, but can let in spyware and other malicious programs, are disabled by default. But there’s a nice touch: Microsoft built in exceptions for well-known, trustworthy sites so most people will never have to turn Active X on – only to forget to shut it off.

Other features include displaying the special codes behind non-English Web addresses, preventing a scam artist from substituting the “a” in the Latin alphabet with the “a” in Cyrillic, so users might think they are visiting the real PayPal site, for instance.

Firefox 2, meanwhile, sports a universal spell checker. Misspelled words are underlined in red, whether you’re composing an e-mail or a blog entry. With Opera 9, you get support for an emerging file-sharing mechanism called BitTorrent along with widgets – Web-based applications for checking weather, sports results or anything else. Plus, Opera lets you easily block individual images – like an annoying graphic – from specific sites, rather than being forced to block all or none.

There are things to like about each browser, and I recommend that IE users at least upgrade to version 7. They may find features to like in Firefox or Opera, but the gap is much narrower now, so IE7 may be satisfactory.

I’ll stick with Firefox, however, because IE7 and Opera 9 don’t offer enough novel features to break inertia. Firefox 2’s improvements are minor but show that its developers aren’t resting and waiting five years for the next breakthrough.