When you start up your brand new computer, you’ll have a choice of browsers warring for your use when you browse the internet. If you’ve gone with Windows 7, you’ll automatically have Internet Explorer 8 installed and it will be your default temporarily. If you have a Mac, you’ll have Safari pre-installed. If you’ve gone with Linux, you’ll have to choose and download your browser before you can start using the internet. Unfortunately, if you’re at work, you may not have a choice; your IT support might have determined the browser safest for use or the one which has programs written for it. For those of us with a choice, however, we’ll talk about the biggest four: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
Internet Explorer is most frequently regarded as a bloated dinosaur that few people who have any knowledge about computers would use. It has widely publicised security holes, loads far slower than any other browser, and seems to always be the last to offer the latest feature. Its worst instalment, IE 6, well known for bugs and hacks, is finally fading from mainstream use. IE8 offers a bevy of new features, including enhanced security, but it still lags behind other browsers on extendable functionality, speed, and site appearance. Many websites that work just fine in Firefox or Chrome will break in IE8 for no particular reason. At present, we don’t recommend that you stick with this browser, unless you don’t mind missing out on functionality or speed.
Firefox has been the most popular browser with geeks and the well-informed internet users for years now. They were the first to offer tabbed browsing, which compared to IE6 was absolutely revolutionary; you could for the first time see everything you had open easily and quickly. This is standard now, but Firefox still represents advanced features for many users. The vast number of extensions available for the browser mean that it’s suitable for almost any task, whether you just want your music player in your browser or if you need to tweak source code to see how a website would look if you took away a margin. Many have begun to complain that Firefox has slowed down and it has lately been hit by a few bugs, but by and large it’s a solid choice for functionality and design.
Chrome, Google’s first outing into the browser wars, is the up and coming choice for tech geeks and developers. Chrome has been proven to be the fastest of all the choices and also natively has crash protection; if one tab crashes, the rest of the open tabs remain as they were. Since it’s fairly new, some websites don’t yet work properly, but on the whole sites are less likely to break than they are in IE8. Chrome also offers a Google search from the address bar and a smaller but growing library of extensions and themes for developers and ordinary people alike.
Safari is Apple’s standard browser on Macs. Most people who own Macs do tend to choose Firefox instead because it typically functions much better and, as previously mentioned, has a huge library of extensions and themes for easy customisation. Apple has done their part to change this perception with their latest offering, Safari 5. Safari now has extensions, the highest level of compliance with websites (which means they’re unlikely to break or lose functionality) and increased security. Safari currently has the smallest marketshare of all browsers listed, so if you don’t choose this browser, you’re not alone.
Which browser are you using?