November 11 2006

You know you've had a bad day when you find yourself drinking Scandanavian pear cider in front of Friday-night BBC sitcoms.

Yes, I admit, in the cold light of day I can't see many circumstances in which I would rationally consider drinking Scandanavian pear cider, or watching a BBC sitcom, but Friday was an unusual day.

However, I have no wish to dwell on it, so moving swiftly on. For those craving an update on my car, yes, I know you can't wait. It is still sitting in pieces in the workshop of Evans Halshaw. There has been some development since it blew up spectacularly on Friday the 13th. The boot is now filled with water and everything inside is mouldy.

Well, that's an improvement then.

Those of you wanting to know more about my recent trip to Venice, as per previous blogs, should check out today's Herald for a full page of me banging on about how great it was, with pictures.

In a startling twist, I've decided to actually dedicate part of this blog to the latest developments in the world of the Internet.

Two new browsers were launched this week, and both are worth checking out, so I did.

Internet Explorer 7 is the latest incarnation of the 11-year-old browser most of you will be familiar with and probably use every day. Look up, does it say Microsoft Internet Explorer at the top of your page. Probably.

IE1 was rapidly followed by IE2 three months later and IE3 less than a year after that. Since then upgrades have been released to take advantage of the latest Internet technology, particualrly advances in web design and layout, and have added increasing numbers of security features, New versions have sometimes also been released to conincide with the latest versions of Windows.

IE7 is a substantial leap forward for the package. There are a number of key new security features to keep you safer when surfing. Among them is a new anti-phishing service, which will help you not got scammed into handing over your details or identity online.

Tabbed browsing has also been added. Those familiar with other browsers, such as Firefox, will have been using tgis for some time, but it is new to IE and is a great addition. Basically, it is like having lots of browser windows open at once, without having lots of windows open at once. You can click a link on a page and open it in a tab, rather than in a window. Click lots of links, open lots of tabs. Then save and organise those tabs as you wish. This makes browing much quicker and more efficient. Ifg it doesn't sound attractive, just try it, you will be hooked.

Printing is also much more intelligent now. Anyone who has ever tried to print a web page will know that it rarely works, and even more rarely works well. IE7 will automatically rezise the page to print as it should.

The new version of IE also has built in a built in RSS feed reader. That is basically a way you can get all the latest information from as many websites as you want delivered straight to you, rather than you going to the sites. So, for example, if your name is Muhammed, and you love mountains, but don't fancy visiting your dozen favourite sites every day to see what the latest updates are, you can have the information delivered to an RSS reader. Usually that reader is a seperate program on your desktop. IE integrates it into your browser. So if Muhammed won't go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Muhammed.

Part of the philosophy of the new version of IE is this more efficient browing. Favourites, history and other useful features are now combined into one easy menu, so you don't have to click, click, click to find what you want, it is all there. The menus are also smaller and neater, leaving more window space for what it is you want to find.

There are many more features, but those are the highlights. go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx for more information and to download.

The other new kid on the block is Firefox 2. Firefox has been doing tabs for some time, and the new versions has some tweaks that make them even more handy than in IE7. For example they open by default, you can quickly bring a tab back if you close it by mistake and you can recover the tabs if the browser crashes.

Security is also upgraded, and the features that allow you to personalise Firefox have been improved. This is where Firefox outruns IE. You can personalise the browsing experience with more than 1,000 add ons, effectively making the browser work for you. Get rid of adverts, have a music player in your browser, handy web developer tools, a shopping assistant, share your links and web images, quickly download links and pages and dozens of ways to find new pages of interest to you based on what you've visited or what you like to do.

Go to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ for more information and to download.

So which is better? Tough choice. Millions upon millions of us use IE because it comes with Windows. The upgrade to IE7 makes the browser much better, safer and more efficient than ever before. Firefox offers a much more personal browsing experience. Mozilla, the firm behind Firefox, know what to do with tabs and know how to offer personalisation that will tailor the browser to your needs.

There is nothing to stop you trying them both. They are free to download, and you can run them alongside each other with no problems. Firefox tends to be the choice of people who like to think they know what they are doing online. IE7 is simple, straightforward but packed with features to make the browsing experience efficient. It depends on how and why you use the web as to which you will prefer but try them both. The key to getting the most out of the web is not to stick to something just because it is easy, or just because everyone else uses it. Don't just use IE because it was installed on your PC when you bought it. Try something else and your horizons will be broadened. There is nothing to stop you coming back home to IE at the end of the day.

Ah well, must go. There's a second bottle of Scandanavian Pear Cider in the fridge at home with my name on it.