Tips for Choosing a Web Browser for Internet
ByYour web browser is the key component of your internet toolkit. It’s not only the window through which you view webpages but a package for downloading files, viewing news feeds and much more. Your computer will almost certainly already have a web browser installed, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best one to use. So here’s a quick run-through of the main browsers out there. Don’t be afraid of trying a few out to see what suits you best – you can always uninstall them, or use different browsers for different tasks.
Internet Explorer – Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, or IE, is far and away the world’s most widely used browser Recent versions are decent enough, but IE’s popularity is mainly down to the fact that for years it has come pre-installed on nearly every new PC as a part of Microsoft Windows, IE has traditionally trailed behind its competitors in terms of features and security. The most recent version, IE8, closed the gap somewhat, but Firefox is still a superior option.
Safari (apple.com/safan) – Pre-2005 Macs also came with IE, but the standard Mac OS X browser now is Apple’s own Safari. In most ways, it’s an excellent browser – especially Safari 4, the version that was released in 2009. Safari is also now available to Windows PC users. It’s fast, intuitive and nice-looking, with a Google search box built in. It also features excellent tabbed browsing, top-class newsfeed tools and an iTunes-style Cover Flow view for browsing your bookmarks. Still, whether you use a Mac or PC it’s worth checking out both Safari and Firefox to see which suits you better.
Firefox (getfirefox.com) – First released in 2004, Firefox is an excellent browser created by the Mozilla Foundation as an open-source product with the help of volunteer programmers around the world. Firefox has a huge range of features, and even if you discover something that it can’t do, you’ll often find that the desired function can be easily added via an extension or some other customization. Furthermore, most experts agree that Firefox leaves PC users slightly less vulnerable to potentially harmful scripts and other web-based nasties than does Internet Explorer With customizable address-bar searching, excellent privacy tools and many other handy extras, this is the best choice for PC and Mac users at the time of writing.
Chrome (google.com/chrome) – Chrome is one of Google’s most recent additions to its armoury, and though still very much in its infancy is definitely worth considering. One interesting feature is the fact that when you open a new tab or window in Chrome you are shown nine thumbnails of your most frequently visited sites in place of the “home” feature that most browsers use. Given Google’s commitment to cloud computing tools, Chrome is sure to be an instant browser to watch over the coming months and years – its integration with the rest of Google’s toolbox will inevitably get slicker and more fully featured.
Opera (opera.com) – Hailing from Scandinavia, Opera introduced many now-standard features (such as tabbed and multi-page bookmarks) years before its competitors. And it still has many unique extras, such as a fully featured mail program built right into the browser window. It’s also very fast and worth trying.
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