Firefox vs. IE 7 (IE7 having trouble with Google sites?)

Well, if you don’t do what you’re supposed to, it’s easy to win.

FireFox simply cheats:
http://blogs.msdn.com/kevinha/archive/2006/10/20/firefox-2-outperforms-ie7-because-firefox-doesn-t-do-the-right-thing.aspx

(Yes, that’s the same as the pingback above.)

Firefox will unofficially become Official Web 2.0 Browser.

Assume Microsoft does nothing and is blind with PR success on IE7 release.

My prediction:
1st wave of Web 2.0 sites get hit the most in severe degree are the social networking sites. Teens and young adults are spending few hours on these web 2.0 sites daily. They will be the first to notice the unbearable longer responses on IE7. These smart consumers will quickly find out the easiest way is to dump IE7 and switch over to Firefox, rather than rollback to IE6. These social networking users will spread the word out like fire. Auto updates will accelerate the Firefox switch over.

Next are the Productivity web 2.0 sites like webtop applications. Simply asking clients to switch to Firefox will solve the issue. If clients want to run office 2.0 app without buying Microsoft product, they surely wouldn’t mind to switch to FireFox that is Free and faster.

In the next 3-6 months, Firefox market share will be mysteriously climbing up faster than usual thanks to the IE auto update.

#30:
>I must say I’ve also used it [IE7] to
>browse Google Reader and Gmail. Maybe
>if I timed it it might turn out to be
>slower than Firefox (which itself is
>*a lot* slower than Opera), but I haven’t
>noticed.

Can you list some sites where Firefox is “a lot” slower than Opera? I’m practically a full-time Opera user, and frankly, I’ve never seen any. I rarely see any where Firefox isn’t faster, often a lot faster, and that’s even after tricking out Opera with every recommended speed trick in the book (something you don’t need to do with Firefox).

And note that I’m not talking about artificial benchmarks that show Opera is faster (there’s one from the Howtocreate site that’s oft-quoted.)

Real sites, especially popular, modern ones.

I think there might have been a day when Opera was fastest, and it still is when flipping “back” through pages you’ve just visited, but complex Web 2.0-ish sites of the day are its Achilles Heel, IMO, particularly if Javascript is employed.

Speaking of Web 2.0 sites, Opera doesn’t work with a lot of them (e.g. Yahoo Mail Beta), or does work but isn’t fully supported (e.g. Windows Live Mail).
In some cases, the folks at Opera have had to write and package elaborate workaround scripts just to get Opera working on a site at all (just recently Yahoo Mail Beta, where the performance is deathly because of this, and as soon as Yahoo changes anything on their end, it stops working again).

None of this is Opera’s fault, which probably supports more standards than anyone else, but sites aren’t particularly keen on standards. They write for browsers, not standards. And browsers with (at best) a 1% marketshare don’t reach a very high level of interest.

Case in point: eBay just announced that they’re concentrating on IE, Firefox, and Safari, and the rest of the browsers will be YMMV from this point forward. Opera will no longer have “advanced functionality” on eBay.
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200610.shtml#2006-10-19095331

Interesting, I had no more problems with google features (that were noticeably hindering) in IE7 than I do with FF1.5

Could the number of plugins installed in Firefox make a difference? I would assume they do.

Just installed IE7 and unlike some people above who had trouble working out how to use the tabs, I found them pretty easy. Come on guys, it’s really not that difficult to use a mouse, especially if you claim to work in the “web” industry.

Anyway, I like the interface. A lot of screen is reserved for the web page thanks to the smaller interface at the top. I like the way the tabs work and the quick-tabs especially won my affection.

Being able to create your own search engine entries with a link is great too, as opposed to Firefox’s requirement to create/edit text files.

It loads quicker than Firefox too, though with MS having access to hidden APIs that Mozilla don’t, this is to be expected.

IE7 is a huge improvement over IE6 and I’d love to use it, but at the back of my mind there’s always the security issue taking me back to Firefox – IE has simply had too many security problems for me to be comfortable using it for my online banking etc.

I thought you’d be interested in a test that I did yesterday: http://marcelo.sampasite.com/brave-tech-world/e/Firefox-vs-IE—Who-s-faster.htm

This time FF beats IE really bad.

Have you tried turning the “Enable Native XmlHttpRequest” to off? It looks like the IE team didn’t code this to spec or they have some slowness in their javascript object. Turn this off and IE is forced to use the orginial ‘Microsoft.XMLHTTP’ object which seems much much faster…

My blog entry on IE7′s xmlhttprequest object:

http://www.techtoolblog.com/archives/ie-7-native-xmlhttprequest-not-so-good

On my 2nd use of IE7 , I showed it to a friend who would be using it in work. Opened Gmail & BBC in tabs. All seemed fine.
after 10 minutes of looking through email, I logged out and attempted to close IE7 down.
I was asked if I wanted to close tabs. Clicked yes.
I then got told, IE 7 has encountered a problem and must be shut down and I was then asked if I I’d like to submit info to MS.
In order words IE7 crashed! On my second use. Pretty Poor.
Otherwise its grand and a huge improvement.
I always hated how opening up a new (blank) window would cause IE6 to open with the same content you were viewing.
So you had to windows showingthe same thing. This made no sense to me.
Verdict:
I am sticking with Firefox.

Can someone elaborate on what is meant by adjective “very slow”? Doesn’t make any sense to me at least. This should be supported with data. I mean on a blah-blah configuration machine loading blah-blah page takes m1 sec in IE and m2 sec in FF. This kind of data is going to help rather than saying “very slow”. “Very slow” for me is 100 times slower, for someone else it might be .3 times slower. Can we get some quick data here?

Mees really don’t like Gate’s folly of late I’ve been
using Opera 9 as it more user friendly…..

I prefer Firefox 2.0.
And I have to say the integrated spell check is awesome.
Only bad thing is: there are still websites not working properly with FF

If you are a Firefox fan you might want to integrate it into your Windows installation CD.

Integrate Firefox into your Windows installation CD:
http://addons.wordpress.com/2006/10/23/firefox-20-final/

The ultimate dream of every Firefox fan:
have Firefox installed since the first boot of Windows

What a load of BS that IE7 renders slowly, on any site i’ve tried it on firefox renders much slower.

Also, like pointed out the default is to check the site against phishing.

And, what are people saying ? Tabs not intuitive, they way more intuitive in IE7 than in Firefox.

Stop talking bs.

Saying FireFox is better than IE7 is just a immature comment. Learn to understand and use all the better technology out there. FireFox is a good browser with its strengths and weaknesses and FireFox is not really better than IE7, but as good as IE7. If you like one better than the other, use it, but don’t tell everyone to use it, because you like. That is very immature.

SNT: huh? Firefox works a lot better on AJAX sites that I’ve tested IE7 on. Faster, by a mile. So, I can’t say it’s a better browser?

Well, personal experience differs. I sure respect your views. But,in this case, you can’t say FireFox is a better browser, just because its better with AJAX sites. By the way, I myself use FireFox also and I like it. But I like technology more than any single technology tool and won’t appreciate it when someone shows personal hatred towards any technology. I care more about technology I use, not the companies that create them, because they don’t mean anything to me.

In XP, I like Firefox.

But IE7 is very nice in Vista. It’s my main browser in Vista.

FireFox is better probably for the simple fact that Microsoft didn’t develop it. Microsoft code is just so sloppy to start with. It is like they intentionally try to see how many lines of code they can execute to do some of the most mundane tasks. They know they have the majority of the world by the balls, and they don’t care if they use every cycle your computer has to add 1+1 . They are Nazi’s.

IE 7 Sucks. ANYTIME i try to open attachments or work with contacts in GMAIL IE 7 crashes. If anyone has any ideas about this let me know soon.

Thank you.

I have been using IE7 and FF2 simultaneously for a month now… I have to admit FF2 is faster but IE7 is better at all the other things. The interface is great. The RSS reader is excellent. It takes some time to learn but it is useful nontheless.

I also used FF 1.x and IE6 once upon a time. Back then FF 1.x was better.

My opinion, for the present try out IE7, bother with FF2 after you get tired of IE7. [Which I guess, is not happening anytime soon.]