Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Firefox, the web browser promoted by the Mozilla Foundation, is being readied for its next big battle against Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Both are preparing for major new releases of their browsers later this year.

Microsoft were initially keen to rest on their laurels after "winning the browser wars", but a small but steady drop in the market share of Internet Explorer forced a rethink by the software giant. They're now preparing to release Internet Explorer 7 - a major upgrade of their aging browser, with a new look, tabbed browsing (popular with Firefox and Opera users), support for the likes of RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and better security and protection against 'phishing'.

Opera 9 is already out, while Mozilla's Firefox 2.0 is now in Beta, with new features like an integrated spell-checker, anti-phishing features, a new look/theme, better integrated searching, 'microsummaries' for bookmarked Web sites (updated headlines from sites), improved tabs, improved RSS integration, and the ability to recover from browser crashes.

With Microsoft putting together a better product, the challenge for Firefox to further grow its market share will be even tougher... Studies put its current reach at anything from 10% to as high as over 30% in parts of Europe.

* eWeek.com: Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 Is No Slam-Dunk
* Lifehacker.com: Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 Screenshots
* Computerworld: Firefox use growing around the world
* PCWorld.com: Master Firefox's Hidden Configuration Tools