With all the recent attention on the new Firefox 3 Internet browser, it's easy to miss two strong, innovative rivals. Add it all up, and Microsoft Corp.'s market-leading Internet Explorer has some impressive challengers.
Opera 9.5, for instance, lets you share bookmarked Web pages and notes among several computers. And another browser, Flock 2, brings Firefox 3's improvements to an already strong system for sharing photos and blog entries and linking friends on social-networking sites like Facebook.
Developed by the Mozilla open-source community, mostly volunteers, Firefox 3 showcases the "awesome bar." Start typing anything into the address bar, and you'll find letters and words jump around as Firefox 3 attempts to suggest up to 12 sites, with priority given to those you most recently visited or manually typed in.
Some people find the choices annoying, preferring how Firefox 2 limits matches to the start of previously visited Web addresses.
But I like that the new browser also looks at the entire address, the Web page's title, bookmarks and the descriptive tags added to them. The way recommendations instantly change with each keystroke reminds me of the powerful desktop search feature built into Apple's Mac computers.
I wouldn't call it "awesome," but it's quite impressive and useful.
Firefox 3 also brings speed and security improvements. Sites known to engage in "phishing" scams or the distribution of malicious software are now automatically blocked. The address bar turns partially green for sites that have passed vigorous background checks by outside parties.
The new browser also lets you launch Web-based e-mail rather than a standalone desktop program when clicking on basic "contact us" links within Web pages, though only Yahoo Inc.'s service is supported for now.
Firefox 2 users will do well to upgrade, and others should consider a switch.
Those drawn to Firefox 3's "awesome bar" may also want to consider Opera...

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