In the infancy of the Internet netscape was king, and then cam Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 which took over the browser landscape. IE has dominated virtually all other browsers until recent years when legitimate contenders to the throne have appeared.

Mozilla's Firefox and Google Chrome have gained momentum, and in the process innovation in web browsers has exploded. The most obvious example is tabbed browsing, or having more than one website open in a single window. It wasn't that long ago that if you wanted multiple web sites open at once, you had to have a window open for each one.

I prefer Google Chrome right now, but new versions of both Firefox and Internet Explorer have recently hit the scene.

Let's start with Internet Explorer 9, which was released earlier this month. It offers a sleek new design, and an engine that was completely rebuilt from the ground up. For those of you running Windows XP, you are out of luck. IE 9 requires you to have Vista or Windows 7. I haven't had a chance to play around with this version of the browser, but it looks like most reviewers like it, and they say that it addresses many of the issues in previous iterations that irritated users. It will be interesting to see if this new streamlined version of the popular browser gains traction. One reason I abandoned IE was security, hackers just love to target Microsoft products. Check out this review from PC Mag.

I used Firefox for three or four years, and only left it behind because I liked Chrome's minimalist approach to their layout. Firefox 4.0 came out last week, and to me it looks and runs like Firefox, which is great. I recommend Firefox to friends and family, because it's layout is very similar to that of Internet Explorer, so it's easier to make the transition from IE. Chrome is my preference, but it has a small learning curve that the non technology geek crowd may not want to learn. Cnet's write up on the new Firefox goes in depth into the new features.

Then there is Google Chrome. I love this browser. It has a small footprint, it's easy to use, and it's fast. It has a different layout than IE or Firefox, but after a short time of using it, you get the feel for it very quickly. My one complaint about Chrome is that it can sometimes be a pain to find a setting because it does not have the traditional toolbar at the top of the window for file, tools, edit, etc.

The guys over at Maximum PC have a great write up comparing the three big browsers, it's a great read which I highly recommend.

IE 9 review 

FF4 review 

Google 10 review 

Comparison Article