The most common Internet Explorer competitors are Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox, and the Opera Browser. As all these browsers are attempting to compete with the massively common Internet Explorer, they are packed with many features in an effort to encourage the average user to switch.

A nice feature of the browser’s by Netscape, Opera and Mozilla is tabbed browsing, an area in which Internet Explorer has lagged behind. Tabbed browsing allows a user to more easily manage multiple web-browser windows: by creating “tabs” for the different windows underneath the address bar, the user may view multiple web pages without having to run multiple-instances of the browser.

Both Opera and Mozilla Firefox also offer the use of “mouse gestures” which allows common commands like moving back a page etc. . . to be executed to right-clicking the mouse and moving it in a certain direction. Over time, the user will be surprised how intuitive these actions become, and they save a lot of time over the long term. Besides more user friendly features, switching from Internet Explorer also has a security benefit. Most malicious software that exploits security loopholes in Internet Explorer doesn’t work on other browsers  using an alternative browser can protect you from some of the Adware and Spyware prevalent on the internet.