Now that Internet Explorer 7 has been released the world is making note of its position in the Net search hierarchy, starting with the fact that the browser has a visible search box built into the “chrome.”
On a new machine, where Google has no presence or partnership, Microsoft Live Search will be the default, only it’s called just Live Search which may be less familiar to some users. Google had suggested that users should be explicitly asked to make a choice from one of several providers. If a user selects Google or Yahoo! as the search engine default, Microsoft respects their wishes.
It’s uncertain whether the search box in the “chrome” is going to make that much of a difference. We’ll know in short order. IE7 is being rolled out in a mandatory fashion to Windows users beginning November 1 through the Windows update system. If Microsoft’s search share rises, the chrome search box may be working.
The free 5-megabyte Firefrox browser, whcih will be available in 39 languages for Windows, Mac and Linux computers, will be downloadable from getfirefox.com.
The new release incorporates anti-phishing technology to prevent the deceptive disclosure of personal information. It restores windows, tabs, in-progress downloads and text typed into online forms if any of those are interrupted by a system crash. And it corrects the spelling of words entered on Web pages.
Version 2.0 also improves on the tabbed-windows interface that Mozilla innovated and that Microsoft introduced for the first time last week with IE7, its biggest upgrade since 2001.
The big question is whether it will stem Firefox’s growth at Microsoft’s expense. Firefox’s share of the browser market has grown to 9.8 percent of the U.S. market this month, from 2.9 percent in October 2004.
RSS
