Many people ask, “What is the best internet browser out there?” & “Why should I use Internet Explorer over other browsers?” When you compare Internet Explorer 9 to other web browsers (i.e – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) there is really no comparison. Internet Explorer currently dominates the market share at 45.53%, while its closest competitors Firefox at 22.46% and Google Chrome at 19.79% as of October 2011.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share
Performance
Internet Explorer 9 vs other browsers has faster startup & shutdown, a faster JavaScript engine for better performance, popular websites load quicker, full hardware acceleration for text, graphics/video, and notifications when add-ons slow browser performance. It’s essentially the browser for dummies and the highly skilled web developer.
Ease of Use
Internet Explorer 9 has the easiest browsing controls for a better browsing experience, search provider suggestions as you type in the search box, new tab page includes quick access to common tasks and your favorite sites, sites can be pinned to the taskbar in Windows 7, tear-off tabs with Windows 7 snap, reopen accidentally closed tabs, combined search and address bar, visual search suggestions show as you type, thumbnail preview controls for pinned sites, accelerators for quick access to web services without leaving the page.
Security & Protection
Internet Explorer 9 has better protection against malicious cross-site scripting attacks, enhanced protection against phishing attacks, domain name highlighting in the address bar to alert you of deceptive websites, and the best protection against socially engineered malware.
Web Standards & Compatibility
Internet Explorer 9 supports standards both commonly used today and for building tomorrow’s websites, including HTML 5, WebM-encoded HTML5 video support when a VP8 codec is installed on windows, H.264-encoded HTML5 video support, and compatibility mode to view websites designed for older browsers.
Developer Tools
Internet Explorer 9 has a comprehensive tool set (HTML, CSS, JavaScript editing, profiling, network inspection, developer tools built-in to the browser, and tools that show pages in different rendering engines to let developers understand the debug browser differences.