In an effort to battle security threats Paypal announced today that it will block "unsafe browsers" from using its services. It is trying to step up its anti-phishing efforts. Older web browsers are considered unsafe because the lack many security features the newer browsers have. Paypal said it was "an alarming fact that there is a significant set of users who use very old and vulnerable browsers such as Internet Explorer 4". Some users were still using Internet Explorer 3 (a browser more than 10 years old).

CNET has rated the most current beta versions of IE8, Opera, and Safari and has rated Firefox the best.

Some of the characteristics giving it its top rating include performance in memory handling (also reported in this village post), the amount and quality of plugins, their new bookmarking system, and the ease of use.

I'm a big fan of the Firefox web browser. It's far superior than IE or any other browser that I've used. I'm happy to see the release of v3 (beta) out today. It is available for developers and testers. Here is a link to some Firefox v3 screen shots.