- Both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox have advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the single most important aspect of working with the World Wide Web: All that abundance of information out there means nothing if you can't get to it. The advantage for Internet Explorer is that the average number of hits returned for any search on any search engine tends to be bigger. Firefox has one advantage that many users consider its greatest benefit, however: Firefox allows you to add search engines to the toolbar that afford a narrower search of specific types of websites, or even specific websites like IMDB or Wikipedia.
- When it comes to installation, many experts agree that Firefox has a definite advantage over Internet Explorer. The most obvious reason is size: Firefox is smaller, more efficient and takes up less space on the hard drive. In a world where a 300 GB hard drive is almost the norm, however, this may not be such a big deal. The installation process is much easier for Firefox than for Explorer, however, and a reboot takes far longer for Explorer than Firefox.
- Both Firefox and Explorer offer roughly equal protection against security concerns like viruses, trojans and the ability of an outside party to hack into your computer. Both browsers also offer protection against phishing. Where Firefox may have a slight edge over Explorer is in its history of responding to newly realized system insecurities in a more timely manner.
- Internet Explorer's legacy will always contain at least one mention of the fact that it is notorious for crashes. All Internet browsers are subject to crashing; that is simply the nature of working with such a sophisticated entity as the multiple machines that actually make up the the Internet experience. Firefox is the preferred browser of many people precisely because, when it does crash, it allows a user to restore his browsing session to the exact point before the crash occurred.
