I bet some of you have noticed Microsoft just released the latest beta version of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 7 beta 2, a few days ago.

You might be wondering how good/reliable/secure/user-friendly is this latest version of the most widely used web browser as compared to its closest rival, Firefox. Well, Networking Pipeline has written a very thorough comparison of the Internet Explorer 7 beta 2 and Firefox 1.5.0.2.

The following are the break down of all chapters of the review :-

• Facing Firefox – A brief introduction of the comparison between Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 1.5.0.2
• Standards And Tabs – Comparison of basic features of web browsers between them.
• Security Matters – Compare both of them in term of security measures.
• Conclusions – Sums up the all comparisons and gives some insights of IE7 beta 2’s short comings.

Below are the summary of the results from the comparisons :-

• Standards And Tabs
  Which browser handles the basics better? :
  IE7 wins by a fraction
  Is support for Web standards still an issue? :
  Too close to decide who wins
• Security Matters
  Can IE7 resist viruses, spyware, and online attacks? :
  Firefox wins for now
  Which browser will be more secure in Windows Vista? :
  Too early to tell. Bah…
• Conclusions
  Can I use either browser to manage RSS feeds? :
  Seems like IE7 is doing pretty well with RSS feeds
  Where does IE7 fall short? :
  Firefox wins due to the support of tons of Firefox extensions and password management tools.

Want to read the whole report? Head over to the comparison of the Internet Explorer 7 beta 2 and Firefox 1.5.0.2.

{tags}Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer, Firefox 1.5, Firefox, Microsoft, Mozilla{/tags}