Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5
Image Manager: None.
Cookie Manager: Unsophisticated. Cookie settings are determined by Security Zones. There are three possibilities: Accept all cookies, Reject all cookies, or Prompt before accepting. The Prompt dialog includes a "Remember this answer" flag that can only "remember" if you chose to accept the cookie, and for that matter, "remembers" a slightly different version of the tale than the reality: it takes that to mean not "Accept all cookies from this domain" but "Accept all cookies from any domain." No access from the browser to cookies stored in cache.

IE 5.5 is a large, clunky application that does little other than be kind to web developers mistakes. Now that I have that out of my system, I can begin to describe the downfalls of IE. As previously stated, it is very easy for websites or programs to perform browser or favorites hijackings in IE, and Microsoft simply can't prevent the mechanisms for doing so without drastically altering the way the application works. Settings for various things like how ActiveX controls are handled are determined by a websites placement in one of four user-defined "Security Zones." Any website not in one of 3 categories (Restricted, Trusted, or Intranet) is relegated to the Internet Zone. A user can only change their web-browsing preferences for an entire zone, and cannot create new security zones. Many other Internet programs use IE's settings, including legitimate software like Juno and the Livejournal update client, and spyware programs that need to phone home.
Download: You probably already have it on your computer.


Netscape Navigator 4.7
Image Manager: Primitive. Includes the option to "Block images" or "Stop animations," but those refer to ALL images, not specific ones. However, it should be given some credit for being the first non-text-only browser to give a user that decision.
Cookie Manager: Somewhat sophisticated. There are three base options under "Cookies": Accept all, Decline all, Accept only those which get sent back to originating server, and "Warn before accepting a cookie" can be set regardless of what the base option is. When it is set to Warn, a dialog box will display the server and the contents of the cookie in question. Does not even try to remember whether you wanted to allow cookies or not. No access from browser to stored cookies in your cache.

Netscape is a fairly large, clunky application as well, but it is more selective in the content it will run. For a long time, it was the "better of the two" in terms of the end-user, because it gave them more control over the way websites behave and was able to curb some "bad behavior." However, in recent years, it's been overshadowed by its descendants in terms of user functionability.

Download: netscape.com


Mozilla 1.0
Image Manager: Highly Sophisticated. Settings in the Preferences menu allow the same functionability as Netscape but with a unique twist: There is a fully functional Image Manager, which will remember whether or not you wanted to allow an image to be loaded. Easy access to the Image Manager is through Tools -> Image Manager -> Manage Image Permissions. This brings up a list of all the domains for which a particular image viewing preference was created, and a user can delete or change the value of the permission for a given domain from this menu. Also, the user can easily block or unblock images for a given site by going to Tools -> Image Manager -> Block/Unblock Images from this site. This feature was removed in later versions of Mozilla, because some people couldn't figure out how to use it.
Cookie Manager: Highly Sophisticated. Uses the same format as the image manager, but with a twist. When it's set to prompt, it also keeps track of how many cookies you have from the particular domain, and differentiates between a new cookie and a modification of an old one. Also provides an interface where you can manually look through the cookies stored through Mozilla and delete them if you choose.

Mozilla is an open-source browser. That means that if you know how to write or modify applications, you are able to do so. However, since it is open source, it does have some bugs, and does tend to be "bloated" (using up more memory than it theoretically should.) However, I've found 1.0 to be a very stable release, and hope that the Big 2 browsers will take some cues from its advanced security features.

Download: mozilla.org


Opera 6.0
Image Manager: Primitive. Is on par with Netscape, except it also includes an interesting option: "Enable .gif animation." This can prevent some flashy banner ads from being too obnoxious.
Cookie Manager: Highly Sophisticated. Includes multiple options for cookie management, including an option to remove all cookies when exiting the browser.

Opera has so many advanced features that aren't covered by these two categories, including options to disable embedded audio or video, disable referrer logging, refuse popup windows, and disable automatic redirection. It also includes an "Author" mode which will override the website's settings and allows the user to view a page as they prefer to. Opera quite frequently refers to itself as "the fastest browser on earth," and so far, this is true. Loading websites with even primitive connections is quick and painless. Opera is advertising-supported software, but they contain a clear and explicit privacy policy, which, to my knowledge, they uphold.

Download: opera.com


Lynx 4.3 (ported to win32)
Image Manager: Doesn't display images. Displays the ALT tags of images and turns the ALT tags into links to the images, where a user can download them if they choose to.
Cookie Manager: Primitive. Uses a system called "the Cookie Jar." Anytime a cookie is accessed, will prompt at the commandline if the user wants to download the cookie. Allows the user to access the cookie jar in the commandline.

Lynx was originally a Unix web browser that was created to run at the commandline, so it is only able to display text and hyperlinks. It's generally an unpopular browser, because it doesn't have a graphical user interface (GUI) like Opera or Mozilla, and mastering the commands can take a while for those who grew up in the Windows world. Also, it adheres strictly to the html standards and will not tolerate large amounts of uncompliance (like IE does.) However, it is very fast (except when there are tables, because it has to load everything in the table before it can display it) and because it doesn't do anything fancy, it is pretty secure as far as malicious webcontent is concerned. It's also pretty interesting to go to different websites using lynx: it feels like you're looking at a totally different www.

Download: fdisk.com

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