Interface

• Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions contained interfaces that were dramatically different from Google Chrome's, but Internet Explorer 9 is much more similar to Google Chrome. Both websites contain a minimal toolbar with few buttons, a tab bar and a new tab page with frequently visited websites. Each browser's interface is still subtly different. For example, tabs appear at the top of the window on Google Chrome, but to the right of the address bar in Internet Explorer. Each browser's menu is accessed by clicking a wrench or gear-shaped menu button at the top right corner of its window.
  
  

Engine

• Internet Explorer uses Microsoft's Trident rendering engine to render Web pages. Google Chrome uses the open-source WebKit engine. WebKit is also used by many other browsers including Apple's Safari Web browser and the mobile browsers on both Apple iOS and Google Android devices. These rendering engines render websites differently. Some websites won't render properly in one of these rendering engines.
  
  

ActiveX

• Internet Explorer is the only Web browser that includes support for ActiveX controls. Google Chrome, like other Web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, lacks support for ActiveX controls. While many popular plug-ins such as Adobe Flash are implemented as NPAPI plug-ins for other Web browsers, some websites and corporations use applications that depend on ActiveX controls.
  
  

Update Process

• Microsoft updates Internet Explorer through Windows Update, which also provides updates for Windows itself. Google Chrome automatically updates itself through the Google Update service, installing new versions in the background. Internet Explorer has a longer release cycle where new versions include significant differences but take longer to come out. In contrast, Google releases a new version of Google Chrome every six weeks. These more frequent releases include fewer features and differences from each other.
  
  

Operating Systems

• As of December 31, 2005, when Microsoft discontinued Internet Explorer for Mac, Internet Explorer only runs on Microsoft Windows. New versions of Internet Explorer often only support newer versions of Windows. For example, Internet Explorer 9 doesn't support Windows XP. Unlike Internet Explorer, the most recent versions of Google Chrome support Windows XP in addition to other operating systems such as Apple's Mac OS X and Linux. Google Chrome even runs on other device types, such as Google TV and Google Chrome OS devices