Decisions, decisions.

Decisions, decisions. Microsoft, Mozilla. Blue e, orange fox. Integration, extensibility.

Someone woke the sleeping giant as Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7.0 last week. Tabbed browsing! RSS support! Enhanced security! Sure, the Big Blue E is playing catch-up, but hey, that's more than they've been doing for the past five years. Mozilla, meanwhile, released the much anticipated second version of Firefox.

The next year or two, coupled with the release of Vista and the Live platform, will show whether Firefox is just a little gnat buzzing around a big elephant, or a viable business alternative to the world's most popular security hole.

The biggest fundamental difference between the two centers around IE's hooks with XP, Vista and MS software suites (hello, Office!), and Firefox's extensibility. Just about every web developer and designer I know has jumped headfirst into Firefox. The extensions and plug-ins are just too good to ignore. There are some really bright people out there making our jobs just a little bit easier.

For all of the non-developers in the world, and all of the really big-business users, IE is the status quo. Having it work closely with Word, Excel and other productivity apps saves large organizations so much time and money, it's really a no-brainer. I'm sure there are a lot of rogue Firefox users over at ACME CORP, but as far as IT Policy is concerned, IE is leading the pack.

Pay close attention to this battle between browser giants. Microsoft has leveraged a *huge* amount money and some argue, the company's future, on taking Windows Live to the masses. They will not let Firefox continue to take browser share without putting up a fight. Firefox, on the other hand, has legions of dedicated users, many of whom shape and mold the Internet that you use every day. It promises to be interesting.