Firefox lover owns IE7.com

“Neither this site nor Mozilla is connected with Microsoft… “

Microsoft may be on the verge of releasing the latest version of its Internet Explorer web browser but it has been beaten by a competitor to the use of the IE 7 domain name.

Online users that key in www.ie7.com expecting to locate information on the upcoming Microsoft browser IE 7, will instead see a big logo of Firefox, the open source browser developed by Mozilla.

The logo includes a link back to Mozilla’s site, and a disclaimer statement at the top of the web page reads: “Neither this site nor Mozilla is connected with Microsoft.”

When contacted, a spokesperson for Mozilla said in an email the site was created by a “web user who is not affiliated with Mozilla Corp”, adding that the company has no information about this site.

A check with Register.com revealed that the domain was issued to a UK internet services company called Digital Dataflow. The domain was registered in 1999, and is next due for renewal on 8 March, 2007.

Read more: silicon.com