The two competitors enter the ring. The crowd is hushed. The referee goes over the rules -- oops, sorry, there are no rules. The bell rings and the two combatants -- Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 -- begin their battle for the hearts and minds of the Web browsing public.

		IE Vs. Firefox
		•  Introduction •  Reviews •  Features •  Opinions

Okay, the whole boxing match thing is pretty much a cliche. But how can you resist when you're talking about such two obvious combatants as Firefox and IE? It's hardly a secret that this pair of browsers is in nose-to-nose competition -- and neither is going to give an inch. And while there are a few other contenders out there (check out Browser Wars: The Saga Continues), these are the two that everyone is watching.

For a while, Firefox looked like it could actually make a major dent in what almost amounted to a Microsoft monopoly -- its innovative (although not original) tabbed browsing, straightforward interface, and its vast library of extensions (offering users the opportunity to configure their browsers exactly the way they liked it) made Firefox the Web equivalent of a folk hero. Perhaps because of this achievement, the much heralded version 2.0 offers a few major tweaks, but on the whole, doesn't mess with success.

And while Mozilla's Firefox has garnered a great deal of popular fanfare and a loyal coterie of followers, Microsoft's IE7 shows that it still hasn't thrown in the towel. Not only is Internet Explorer still the chosen browser for most businesses, but Redmond's programmers seem to have taken a hint from their rival's popularity and added a number of clever -- if not innovative -- features.

IE7 now has tabbing, improved security, better RSS functionality, a bright new interface, and an upgraded search. It still doesn't offer extensions and similar add-ons, but it does offer smooth integration with all of Microsoft's other products -- which is a very important feature as far as businesses are concerned. (It also has the advantage of being an automatic upgrade -- unless they block it, most IE6 users are going to become IE7 users whether they planned to or not.)

We've been covering the clash of these two titans for some time now. So, for those who want to follow the ongoing battle, we've compiled an ongoing listing of reviews, features, and blog posts examining how these two browsers have been developed, changed, hyped, and released.