Web Browsers: The Best of ‘08 - Microsoft Internet Explorer
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Internet Explorer 7 comes in at second place for top web browsers of 2008. With radical security improvements released in its latest version, Internet Explorer outperforms all other browsers when it comes to allowing users to access material on the Internet without worrying about their computer's safety. It has also borrowed ideas from other top browsers (Firefox and Opera) in order to offer a host of extra features that were lacking in previous versions.
Another improvement added by Internet Explorer 7 is the highly minimalist interface, which allows users to view more of the web page that they are currently visiting. This feature makes Internet Explorer a sure bet for anyone who is annoyed by on-screen menu clutter, and would rather just see what the web page has to show. The downside of the minimalist navigation is that it does take a little more work to get to some of the less frequently used features of the browser.
Internet Explorer currently controls a large majority of the browser market, though that share is gradually declining over time. As such, website developers are most likely to develop their pages in such a way that they are best viewed with the Internet Explorer browser. Microsoft is currently developing Internet Explorer 8; upon its release, Internet Explorer will display content in the same way that other top browsers do. At that point, developers will develop websites for all three browsers. However, until then, the majority of web pages do appear best on Internet Explorer 7.
Unfortunately for many users, Internet Explorer 7 can only be run on Windows Vista and Windows XP Service Pack 2. Although it does come packaged with virtually all new machines, the install for Internet Explorer 7 is considerably larger than that for either Firefox or Opera. Once the browser is installed, it runs at comparable speed with Firefox, but is well out-performed by Opera.
Although Internet Explorer 7 does come with the capability to add plug-ins and add-ons, the selections of each are significantly less than they are for Firefox. The result is that Internet Explorer 7 is somewhat less customizable than Firefox is, while coming with fewer packaged components than Opera.
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