There's a lot of excitement about Firefox 2.0 (although it seems muted compared with 1.5) but I have no plans to jump on the bandwagon quite yet despite the new version's better security and better speed. Why not? It mostly has to do with the compatibility of extensions. Why would I want to jump to 2.0 if some of my 1.5 extensions won't work? It would be like buying a new car with a better motor but the headlights and speedometer don't work. For now, I'll stick with 1.5. Who knows, I may even try IE7.
Update: Hardware 2.0's Adrian Kingley-Hughes has a post looking at 2.0's shortcomings, including memory leaks, weak anti-phishing features and incompatible extensions. He still believes 1.5 users should upgrade: "If you stick with 1.5.x then you're going to be at risk from unpatched vulnerabilities.  The only way to go is up to 2.0 and keep downloading updates as they become available."

After months of anxious anticipation, Internet Explorer 7 is finally available. Now, we can abandon those pesky open-source browsers that have kept IE from cementing its domination of the market. I can't wait to uninstall Firefox, Flock and Opera. No more worrying about cool extensions and plug-ins from an army of developers, no more worry about Web sites that just don't look quite right, and finally no more guilt about trying to be one of those people who seeks out Microsoft alternatives. If I were you, I'd rumble over to IE7's download site immediately. Can it only be a matter of time before Firefox's 10% to 12% share of the browser market returns to a more reasonable level - say 2% to 3%? Then, we'd be back to normal again with a true king and lots of little wannabes wandering around to make it seem like competition is alive and well.

   Then again...what if IE7 isn't the be all and end of browsers? What if it's a simply much-needed improvment from IE6, which was still using Spyglass technology from late-1990s? What if Firefox 2.0 is just as good and user-friendly? (and less of a memory hog would help as well!) Surely, this would force Microsoft to deal with competitors (Firefox, Opera, Flock, Maxthon, etc.) that encourage innovation. What if all those Firefox users and all those Firefox developers just keep on doing what they're doing? Now, this could be interesting, very interesting.

   So what do you do as a browser user? Well, if you're curious and brave, download IE7. If you're happy with Firefox, Flock and Opera, just keep on doing what you're doing. For more view check out FactoryCity, Inside Microsoft and Matt Cutts.

Sorry, one more G-Thought. Now that Google Apps is out in the wild, the inevitable question is when Google will launch a browser. I mean, it can't hide behind Firefox forever, right?

While Firefox doesn't seem as sexy these days (maybe it's a good sign), it now 15.8% of the U.S. browser market. Globally, Firefox has 12.93%, compared with 11.79% in May, according to OneStat.com. IE's market share fell to 83.05%, although it has fallen to 79.8% in the U.S. The most enthusiastic Firefox users are in Germany where the browser has 39% of the market. While I've been an ardent Firefox user for the past year or so, I recently started using the new version of Flock after finding its first foray to be less than ideal. One of the reasons Flock now has some appeal is how you can customize with extensions - just like Firefox. Flock became my 1A browser after someone came out with a hack so password tool Roboform will work with it. (Roboform, in my view, is the Web 2.0 because its easy to ramble all over the Web without having to punch in passwords at each site).
   While I don't expect IE to lose its perch at the top (maybe IE7 will revive its market share) but choice is always a good thing because it encourages innovative. Speaking of choice, The Economist recently had a story looking at whether there were alternatives to Google. Part of Google's "problem" is its dominance, which probably keeps new, small  players with interesting features/ideas out of the search game. It is pretty amazing that Google has dominated the search market for the past four, five years. In the high-tech world, this is an eternity. Anyone using new and interesting search engines? Update: The first beta of Firefox 2.0 (download here) is slated to come out July 11 (today). If you're brave and bold, go for it. For the rest of us who want to make sure all of our extensions still work, hang on.

A thought for a Sunday morning: what ever happened to Flock? It was just a few months ago that everyone wanted a peek at the new browser for Web 2.0 - but today's the buzz is gone, although it appears the company is still toiling away on new features. Perhaps this is the cruel reality of Web 2.0 - it's relatively easy and inexpensive to develop a new service/application but getting traction with users continues to be the real challenge. Flock had a big window of opportunity with an enormous amount of pre-launch buzz but it failed to impress when the alpha finally appeared on the scene. So what now? Is there still life for Flock and, if so, will anyone give it anyone shot? If there is a silver lining to Flock's effort is it demonstrates how Mozilla and Firefox can be used a platform to create niche-oriented browsers. Songbird is a great example where developers took the Firefox browser engine to build a cool music player. Here's hoping there are still developers willing to create a new browser. As Firefox demonstrated, there is demand for something different and better.