Survival of the fastest

THE WORLD Wide Web is the best part of the Internet — the part that allows us look at (and hear to) a mix of text and images, sound and video in a single layout called the Web page. But we can't do this without a key software component — the Web Browser — that understands the language used to create these goodies (Hyper Text Mark-up Language and its extensions) and then interprets it for us.

Which is why the browser guys — the ones who control the gateway to the Web — are usually busy either going to banks to stash away their earnings. And the irony of Internet, of course, is that the ones who make the mega bucks are not the ones who charge for their product, but those who give it away free.

Lot of users think the Norwegian ``Opera'' is a great little browser — the fastest and slimmest around. But does one want to pay $30 for it when others give similar products free? No!

The two browsers, Netscape and Internet Explorer, have been slugging it out in what came to be known as the "Browser Wars", with each releasing a new version, hard on the hells of the other guy. The battle has now gone into the next stage: Netscape released its Version 6.0 about nine months ago and followed it up with an upgrade called 6.1, on August 1, this year. Internet Explorer launched its own IE 6.0 exactly 27 days later.

When Netscape 6.0 first became available many changed over from the classic Netscape 4.7 version — then realised it was a mistake. The new Netscape was a highly unstable and painfully slow product, which took ages to open. So, users went back to the 4.7. The August tweak operation, which produced the version 6.1, is said to have remedied most of the problems and speeded up the start-up with a `Quick Launch' feature. The package now includes the Netscape Navigator, Instant Messenger, Composer and Address Book, NullSoft's Winamp for audio playback, RealPlayer8 for seeing video and Macromedia's Flash for seeing those jazzy web animations. A HP print utility, ``Print Plus'' and the "Net2Phone'' PC-to-phone utility is also thrown in (the last one is illegal in India till April 2002). The software occupies 26 MB on Windows/Intel PCs.

The August release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.0 was bundled with the new Office XP suite. But otherwise it is barely distinguishable from the previous version 5.5. However, there are a few security enhancements, including a ``sentry'' who can be ordered to keep out intruders — those annoying ``cookies'' who sneak in with incoming e-mail. Also useful, is an improved ``print preview'' feature that allows you to see how big a particular Web document is, before you hit the print button... then realise it's going to take a full ream of paper.

Meanwhile, two weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled another `freebie' browser, MSN Explorer, which is in effect, large chunks of its own IE 5.5 plus a little icing on the cake: It throws in Outlook Express, MSN Messenger, the Windows Media player for audio and video, into a single smooth application. Here you can surf the web, send and receive email, exchange instant messages, play multimedia — all from one central interface. Did someone at the back there, say "Big Deal! I have all these features in Netscape?" True , but MSN Explorer, whips it all together into one interlinked page and then allows up to five different users in the family.

And since this version is localised for India, you can see Bollywood rather than Hollywood gossip and Dalal Street rather than Wall Street stocks. One advantage is that you can access your own special MSN Explorer version any where in the world — not just on your personal desktop. The India version can be downloaded from www.msn.co.in and the 5 MB file may take about half an hour on a good day. But why bother? The October issues of the Indian IT monthlies, Digit, Computers @ Home and PC Quest contain the browser on their free CDs.

A week after installing the `desi' MSN Explorer, one still gets a kick when a browser opens with the cheery greeting "Good Morning", gives the latest dope on Sushmita Sen's new film and Michael Jackson's new album, forecasts what the weather is going to be in his hometown and the political weather in Delhi — all in a screen that one has created, the way one want it to look.

And sorry, you can't see it. It's protected by a password.

A.VISHNU

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