Alternative browsers are gaining significant market share, and both Apple and Microsoft are releasing OS upgrades which portend some interesting changes in Web development. Of particular interest for language learning professionals may be new developments in the area of Web browser based applications, particularly using an approach dubbed "Ajax." In the spring of 2000, Netscape had just released the beta of Netscape 6, to a largely indifferent Web community. This spring, Netscape has again released a beta, this time of Netscape 8, which uses a dramatically different approach, based largely on a popular new browser, Firefox. In 2000, several browsers had been newly released: Opera and iCab. Today Safari (from Apple) and the open-source Firefox (from Mozilla) are the new players and are attracting considerable interest. The increasing popularity of Apple's Safari is understandable, given Microsoft's decision not to update the aging IE for the Mac, while Apple regularly updates its browser with new features and capabilities. It is Firefox, however, that has made the biggest splash in the media, with a cover story, for example, in a recent issue of Wired Magazine. In this article, the author talks about two new web applications and browsers, namely (1) Ajax; and (2) Firefox.