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Browser shoot-out: IE 7 v Firefox 2

Robert Vamosi CNET

Published: 31 Oct 2006

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Go to section: Introduction Installation Look and community Tabbed browsing Cool new features Security and performance The winner is...

Tabbed browsing

Tabbed browsing has become a part of the Internet browser world. Microsoft just added it to Internet Explorer 7, but Mozilla has had it in Firefox for years. Which one implements this feature the best?

 

Internet Explorer 7

Rafe:
With the latest versions, both browsers treat tabs similarly. You can close tabs with their own little close boxes and open new tab windows by clicking in the tab bar (IE 7 makes it more obvious by displaying a tiny, empty tab). Both highlight the active tab subtly (too subtly for my taste), and let you drag tabs around and save open tabs. Differences: Firefox makes it easy to reload all tabs; IE has a thumbnail viewer.
Score  4

Peter:
IE 7 includes a New Tab button to the right of your last open tab that takes up unnecessary screen space. I couldn't find a way to remove it. IE 7 bunches two Favorites icons, all open tabs, and the standard browser toolbar in the same row of real estate. A helpful tab preview icon displays thumbnails of all your open tabs for any window.
Score  3

Elsa:
Is it my imagination, or does Firefox open a new tab about a millisescond faster than IE 7 does? At the same time, IE 7's blank tab can help users discover tabbed browsing.
Score  4

Total: 11

 

 

Firefox 2

Rafe:
One change in Firefox 2 that is a step backward from the last version: If you open a lot of tabs, Firefox shrinks their size a little and puts arrows at the left and right of the tab bar so that you can scroll back and forth. The previous version shrunk tabs a lot, so you could fit many more into the tab bar. I'm penalising Firefox's score for that one. IE 7 has the same problem.
Score  4

Peter:
Firefox adds a new Close Tab button to each open tab but didn't add thumbnail previews (a feature that can be added via Firefox extension). It would be nice to incorporate more features from Tab Mix Plus, such as the ability to customise how Ctrl-Tab switches tabs.
Score  4

Elsa:
Firefox's tiny drop-down menu next to its tabs is a convenient shortcut for finding recently viewed pages, and its layout offers more room for tabs -- although once we had a dozen tabs open, we were forced to scroll awkwardly to view the thirteenth tab and beyond. Luckily, though, if Firefox crashes, you can restore those tabs, which IE 7 can't do.
Score  5

Total: 13

 

Go to section: Introduction Installation Look and community Tabbed browsing Cool new features Security and performance The winner is...

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