Though Internet Explorer 6 really slacked when it came to web standards compatibility, especially with CSS, IE7 definitely made quite a number of improvements while playing feature catch-up with tabbed browsing among other features.
However, after havnig beta tested the web developer beta of IE8 since early March when it was released/announced at Mix08, I definitely gotta say that the IE team at Microsoft has made great progress. Web standards are now the focus and the browser even passes the Acid 2 test which tests for compliance with the CSS 2.1 spec.
Firefox 3 has shown great progress as it has gone from alpha, to beta, and now into RC1. The smart bookmarks features are great to use and make things just that much smoother. The interface improvements also make the browser even better. Add on top of that the Mozilla community developing plug-ins, as well as the improvements in Javascript performance, Firefox definitely is still the strongest competitor against the still popular IE, and with good reason.
Safari has become pretty stable and very quick with a few updates since first becoming available on Windows. At first it was rather bug-filled but most of those issues have been addressed and Safari has for the most part, been a quick and clean browser to use. No where near the amount of features as either IE8 or FF3 however.
Opera, the mobile warrior of browsers. Believe it or not, Firefox wasn't the first to have tabbed browsing. Much innovation in the browsers of today can be traced back to Opera. Yet, in my experience, with the amazing features, it has the tendency to crash more often than any of the other 3 browsers I've mentioned. I'm not sure if it's my browsing habits or what but it's just not stable enough for me to use regularly.
As for any other browsers, there's not much hope for them to become much more than alternatives for a very tiny percentage of web surfers. IE still dominates the market, and only Firefox has really had the power to up its market share against the long standing browser.
I can vouch for all of what I say as I typically have IE, FF, and Safari open with at least 5 tabs open in each at any one time. I just seem to have a habit of doing lots of things at once. Hehe. That and the part where I love the web, am a web developer/designer, and enjoy the latest tech/gaming news. |