The war of the Web browsers has up to now featured heavyweights Microsoft and Mozilla. Now that two-way battle has become a cage fight with the arrival of new, robust competitors.

The near monopoly that Microsoft's Internet Explorer once had in the later part of the 1990s has been eroded by smart and intelligent Internet browsers, even though it still holds the biggest market share because it is pre-installed by computer makers.

According to Net Applications, a market share tracking firm, IE is used by nearly 67 percent of net surfers. And users who once abandoned IE have re-adopted it because of popular updates, while its relatively new competitors have progressed as well.

Mozilla is the phoenix that rose from the ashes of Netscape and it has begun feeding on the pie baked by Microsoft. It recently launched its new browser version, Firefox 3.5. Mozilla revolutionized web surfing with "tabbed browsing" and ad pop-up blocks.

"Firefox has the best plug-ins available that help to customize your browser for specific functions," said Moajiz Farooqui, a software engineer at the Adobe Systems, which provides flash players as add-ons for the Mozilla browser.

It’s a misconception, though, that Mozilla is the only browser that provides add-ons. They and plug-ins are a vital part of every browser. Although Firefox leads in this field, its position is under attack.

Already fierce competition has intensified with the launch of two new browsers, Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari. Apple struggles when targeting the Windows customer base. Safari 4 comes with its own Java acceleration script and polished look. But in Windows, Safari occupies twice as much space as Firefox or Chrome. To perform outside Apple's own devices, Safari has a long way to go.

Google's Chrome 3 arrived in late July. It can be downloaded, is easy to install and uses less memory than its competitors. According to Daily Tech, an online tech magazine, Chrome is by far the fastest browser, with Safari close behind (based on the results of synthetic benchmark tests performed on all the browsers).

In terms of security, Chrome provides good overall protection with tab isolation, a private browsing mode and less vulnerability.

"The thing that makes Chrome score over others is its open source program, Chromium," said Ahmad Perwez, a graduate student in computer applications at Jamia Millia Islamia. Google released the entire source code of Chrome, including its Javascript engine. An open source program allows its users to change and improve the software and to redistribute it in modified forms.

Kafil Ahmed, a bioinformatics student at JMI and a gaming enthusiast, called Adobe flash players sluggish and said it would be fascinating to see Chrome exploit this opportunity. If Chrome is able to play videos and flash games without the help of Adobe, he said, it would be an added advantage.

The recent trend shows that IE has steadily been losing its user base while Firefox and Chrome are speedily catching up. Google's Chrome, with its 4.6 percent user share, has a long way to go.

The Daily Telegraph's Matthew Moore summarizes the verdict of early reviewers, "Google Chrome is attractive, fast and has some impressive new features, but may not yet be a threat to its Microsoft rival."

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