The Browser Wars are Back

Well I think they are, now that Netscape have released version 8 of their browser! Netscape 8 is built on Mozilla Firefox technology, and renders pages as Firefox would, but it also has a few tricks up its sleeves.

If you use Firefox, you may come across a site, and the site refuses to load, because it is not Firefox compatible. This meant you had to load Internet Explorer to view the site. Not anymore, because Netscape 8, can switch the page rendering to Internet Explorer, and lo and behold the site you are trying to view will work! You may be thinking that's a good idea, but what about the security implications! Well Netscape have implemented Site Controls. What this means is that they have an online database of websites that can be trusted, so that if a site is dodgy, it will only be rendered in Firefox mode. You can also use the site controls feature yourself. Netscape, like all good browsers do, uses tabbed browsing. Next to the site name on the tab is a security shield. When you click this shield it brings up a list of preferences you can apply to the site, such as which rendering engine to use, and how much you trust the site. In the advanced settings you can specify things such as whether to allow popups, JavaScript etc, and if using IE mode Active X.

Installation is a breeze, but I hated 2 things about it: 1) You download the installer, which runs and downloads Netscape, thus meaning you can't save it to your hard drive and 2) Internet Explorer is set as the default rendering engine. Luckily you can change this, but I would have thought that being a browser based on Firefox, (that supports all current web stands, whereas IE does not) Firefox would have been the default engine. Luckily if you click on advanced when installing, you can change this.

Find out more about Netscape at http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/start8.jsp and download it at http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/

Microsoft should take note - Firefox / Mozilla SeaMonkey and Netscape are here to stay as web browsers, as is Safari and Camino on the Mac and Opera, another great internet browser. Stay tuned for more on the browser wars!