Five years in the making, Internet Explorer 7 has a distinctive new look and an improved security posture, but our initial test shows that the Microsoft browser still nips at the heels of Firefox’s feature set and its Web development standards support.

We tested gold code for Internet Explorer 7 released on Oct. 18 against a very late beta (RC 3) of Mozilla’s Firefox 2 — the final code  was released on Oct. 24 after our initial testing wrapped up.  Testing was performed in a lab environment and in the day-to-day production efforts of a 42-person Web development agency on a variety of systems ranging from Toshiba Protege laptops to Dell Precision 390 Workstations. 

We focused on the browsers’ user interface changes, feature set and compliance with Web development standards that will directly affect how Web content is viewed within each browser. We held off on deep performance testing, because we wanted to make a more accurate assessment over a longer test run. We plan to publish those numbers in late November.

IE 7’s interface changes are pretty dramatic when compared to the overall UI polishing presented in Firefox 2. The common navigation button collection found in nearly any Web browser has been minimized in IE 7 to a Spartan row focusing on large back and forward buttons, an ample address bar and search box and two small icons providing page stop and reload.

While the UI upgrades for Firefox 2 are not as extensive as those made in IE 7, it does offer some new features like improved privacy options for its users, a built-in spellchecker, and features that help users navigate recently closed and saved tabs.
	Spell checker

Click to see: UI upgrades for Firefox 2

Click to see: Acid2 – a test of Web development standards compliance – shows only the Opera 9 browser (top) displayed the image perfectly. Firefox 2, center, and IE 7, bottom, could not present the full image.