Product Reviews

While oranges aren't the only fruit, it often feels, from a PC perspective at least, that Internet Explorer (IE) is the only web browser. Its integration with Windows has made it the default browser for millions of PC users regardless of its ability.

Fortunately, the competition has heated up with the launch of Mozilla's Firefox 1. Some of you may be familiar with Mozilla. The company started just over a year ago, launching its open-source eponymous browser based on Netscape Navigator. Firefox is the natural extension of that project, offering lots of advanced features, better security and a simple interface, all in one free download (and on the Shopper CD and DVD).

Once installed, Firefox offers to transfer settings, favourites and cookies from another web browser on your PC. We tried moving IE's settings. It proved seamless, transferring Favorites to Firefox's bookmarks. It even managed to transfer website state settings so that, for example, we were still logged on to Computer Shopper's website.

While these transfer options make it easy to switch to Firefox, it's the features you get with it that make it worth keeping. First on the list is tabbed browsing. A feature of the Mozilla browser, this adds a taskbar that enables you to browse multiple websites inside a single window. This may not sound like much, but it's an excellent feature. It's particularly useful when comparing information on two sites, as it's much easier to switch between them than it is using the Windows taskbar. As a way of cutting down on information overload, it's a valuable tool.

The next major development is support for RDF Site Summary (RSS) feeds. These are becoming more popular, as they enable websites to publish a list of new items, such as the latest news stories on www.computershopper.co.uk. With Firefox, RSS support produces live bookmarks. Just add a feed to the browser and it appears as a folder, listing the latest posts. Commercial RSS readers cost from $30, so having the feature for free is a great advantage.

Firefox is also much better than IE when it comes to internet searches. It comes with a Search bar, similar in operation to Google's toolbar. However, you can choose which search engine to use from a drop-down list. As well as the traditional search

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engines, you can search websites. Existing plug-ins currently cater for eBay, Amazon and Wikipedia, although new sites are being added all the time. Fans of the highlight and search buttons on Google's toolbar needn't fret, as a Firefox version is available on the Firefox website.

Firefox is also better at searching for text in web pages thanks to its Find bar. It searches as you type and doesn't obscure any part of the web page, which is a problem with IE.

The Download Manager is another important part of Firefox. It handles all file transfers and lets you pause, resume and restart downloads. It also provides a simple way of tracking and locating your recent downloads. This type of functionality has been available with third-party software for a long time, but it's good to see it built-in for free.

Finally, the interface is just as good, if not better, than IE's. The large icons give the application a friendly appearance. With new schemes and customisable toolbars, you'll soon have Firefox working the way you want it.

With Firefox it's obvious when you're visiting a secure website, as the location bar turns yellow and a padlock appears in it. With IE you have to look for the tiny padlock icon that appears in the bottom right of the screen.

Under the bonnet, Firefox has been tuned so that it's safer to use than IE. It blocks ActiveX controls, which means you're not susceptible to the same kinds of attacks that IE is. This helps prevent spyware in particular from getting on your PC. A pop-up blocker is also installed, which protects you from the worst of the lot and is just as effective as the one included with Windows Service Pack 2.

The problem most Internet Explorer alternatives have is compatibility with websites. Many designers write sites specifically to work with IE, in effect locking out the competition. Fortunately, Firefox ran into very few problems, and we found that it's actually much better at rendering pages than IE. In particular, it deals with XHTML pages, which can confuse IE into making a complete hash of it.

That said, Firefox has some problems. Notably, some websites refuse to work with it, particularly internet banking sites. These are usually quite specialised and can be very strict in the browsers that are allowed to access them. In our tests we found that Egg, HSBC and NatWest all worked, although the Egg Money Manager wouldn't, as it uses ActiveX. We also found a couple of instances where embedded video wouldn't play correctly and Firefox repeatedly tried to download the plug-in.

That said, the inconvenience of having to return to Internet Explorer for the occasional website is well worth it for everything else Firefox offers. It's easily the best web browser available and we fully recommend it. It's safe and easy to use, and you'll soon wonder how you ever got along without it.