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Life in the times of Internet Explorer 7.

As the Internet gets more and more pervasive in our everyday lives, we end up spending an increasing amount of time riding around the world on our browsers. Forget mail. Forget chatting. Forget Googling around for anything and everything work-related... From looking up train/flight times, to checking our bank accounts, to window shopping for gadgets, to checking ODI scores live at Cricinfo, to downloading music, we are increasingly turn to the Web for a lot of routine, day-to-day things. So it makes sense therefore to be a little picky in choosing a web browser.

For the last few years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has dominated the web browser space like a smug and smiling Goliath. But leadership is action, not position. Falling prey to its own absolute monopoly, this Goliath till quite recently had virtually forgotten that it had to keep innovating itself to hold its place. Instead of working on further developments and improving IE 6, Microsoft complacently let things drift along.

The world has a habit of making room for those who know where they are going. So a rash of far superior and more feature-rich browsers like Firefox and Opera have begun to nibble steadily away at IE’s marketshare. Though IE is still way ahead in the game, Microsoft can no long ignore this sharp nipping at it heels. Hence, it is in the final throes of giving birth to Internet Explorer 7.

Currently available in Beta 3, Internet Explorer 7 is slated for final launch around November this year. Microsoft has worked double-time to overcome IE 6’s shortcomings in its forthcoming avatar. And IE 7 hopes to reclaim its lost desktop ground with improved navigation, tabbed browsing, in-built web search, advanced printing, RSS feed subscriptions, enhanced interface, better security, and lots more. We’ll dig deeper into it some other time.

Meanwhile, if haven’t already sampled IE 7, you can sample it right now from www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx. Mind it: IE 7 required to have Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed on Windows XP. It would be a good idea to verify all the requirements at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/about/sysreqs/default.mspx

O guru, remember: Seek always, for by looking for one thing you will surely find another. And until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can fly. Sound like Siddhu, do I? Nevermind. You try Opera. And also check Flock. Each has its virtues. Of course, my heart is still aflutter with Firefox.