SANDY TECHFANATIC

One of the most debatable topics on the net is up for debate, yet again. Yes, we are talking browsers, the pieces of software that are everybody’s gateway to the mystical world of The Web. And which run into long pages of rants on various forums online.

All the 3 major browsers, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla Foundations Firefox and Opera Software’s Opera are going through an upgrade cycle. The beta versions are out and today we shall see what to expect from them.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

I would be lying if I were to say that I wasn’t surprised at such an early upgrade. I mean, IE6 was around for donkey’s years before the boffins at MS decided that it was time for IE7. Appearance wise, there is little that has changed, but the way pages are handled have. IE finally looks to be following all the web standards quite competently. But all this doesn’t really seem to increase performance at all. It still seems fairly sluggish, but then this is an early Beta and IE 8 gets the benefit of doubt from me.

With that safely tucked away, we have some cool new features like Activities (select text, and it’ll give you options to do something with it. Like search on a map or on any search engine) and WebSlices (MS speak for a spruced up version of RSS feeds. Only eBay and Facebook support this, as of now), an improved phishing filter and auto crash recovery. Oh boy, IE needs this one. All said and done, IE 8 is a step in the right direction.

IE8 Beta 1 Changelog

Download IE8

Mozilla FireFox 3 Beta 5

This is the browser that gave Microsoft the heebie-jeebies and for good reason. It was small, fast, infinitely customizable and best of all, it was open source. And given the Mozilla Foundations marketing muscle, the browser spread like wildfire and replaced the shoddy IE 6 on many a computer.

In the latest Beta, Mozilla seems to have addressed tons of performance issues and it does seem faster than the older one. They have also added a load of personal features which allows you to organize your favorites better. The address bar also allows you to search page titles, in case you forgot the name of ‘that’ website which sold salted peanuts.

My only gripe is that it takes a relatively long time to start up. I hope this will be fixed in the final version.

Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 5 Changelog

Download Firefox 3 Beta 5

Opera 9.5 Beta 2

I have been an Opera fan boy for as far as I can remember and have been using it since version 6. It’s always been ahead of its times and was the first browser to offer tabbed browsing. It also offers a mail client, bit torrent support, mouse gestures, widgets, themes apart from offering the old lady to cross the road, even if she doesn’t want to. Its claim to fame however was of being “The world’s fastest Internet browser”, which was a conclusion reached by many a tech magazine and website.

In the latest version, Opera offers better a completely search-able database of all your goddamned visited pages. Yes, even the content is indexed which is accessible from the address bar. There is little that it did not have in the first place, to be improved in the newer version. Though, there are lots of performance enhancements to keep you happy.

Opera 9.5 Beta 2 Changelog

Download Opera 9.5 Beta 2

I would have loved to do some performance testing, but since only Firefox is in the final stages of the Beta, it will, quite obviously, ace all tests. IE seems to lagging far behind in the script test, a bit too much for comfort, actually. So, we shall wait till the final versions of all the 3 browsers are released and we shall have a bigger Web 2.0 battle.

Till then, happy surfing.