After a long wait, Microsoft has finally launched its new explorer (download here to check it out).

They have basically copied what can be considered the 4 killer features of Firefox:

- Tabbed browsing and bookmarking

- Integrated RSS browsing

- Configurable search box

- Optional add-ons created by users/3rd parties
They added some minor innovations to it like a “printing optimizer” to shrink very wide pages or tab selection using thumbnails. They also promised increased security protection against phishing etc…

It’s worth taking a look, it certainly catches up with innovations and adds some new stuff, but I will not switch until I have compared it to Firefox 2.0, which is coming out as a final release before the end of this month, although a pre-release version is already available for the impatient.

Happy browsing!