For the past few weeks I have been Browser hopping (OS hopping too, but more on that in another post) and I am going to try and critic them. There are hundreds of browsers available, but the biggest ones are probably: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. There are more, but these are the one's I will be focusing on.
The latest version of IE is by far there best. I always Hated to use IE 7. It was slow and cumbersome to use. But IE 8 seems slightly more streamline, slightly faster, and some of the new tab features are nice. But, there are problems with it too. For some reason, pages that used to work in IE 7, don't work in IE 8. Not all of the, as a matter of fact, I have yet to run into this problem. But I have heard a lot of complaints about this, and so has Microsoft. Microsoft keeps updating the programs compatibility issues though, so this problem will not last very long.
There are two versions of Firefox available. Version 3.0.11 which is the latest stable release, and there is version 3.5 RC1 (release candidate). I use 3.0.11 actively, and will be testing the RC shortly. Overall, Firefox is not the prettiest browser in the world. The best things about Firefox is the Huge add-on database they have. The problem with add-ons in Firefox though, the more of them you use, the slower the browser is. Firefox is not a screamer in the browsing area, the add-ons (once you find ones you can use) are what make the browser so enjoyable.
Safari, Apples Browser. Version 4.0 is the latest one available from Apple is really, really impressive. Its VERY fast, you don't have to download adobe flash player for it, and it's very slim and trim. I dislike the bookmarks that come preloaded, in the bookmark bar, but almost all the major browsers have that, and there easy to get rid of. The one dislike I have for Safari is that in order to open a new tab, you must click on a drop down menu on the top right corner of the browser window.
I have been testing the Opera Unite Beta browser which is slightly different than the regular Opera Browser. First off, it adds some file sharing, and messaging functions that can be used with others on any browser. There are several more options I will not get into, but over all, I really like the browser. One issue I ran into was a JavaScript/Flash player bug, and its very annoying. Basically, if your watching a flash video, and you click to watch a different video, It comes up with a Null page. But if you go back one space, it starts playing the video you asked it too. Unite is not very fast ether, its actually the slowest browser out of all of these (IMO I did no actual speed tests), but it has a very attractive design/layout which i really like. I just hope they fix the Flash issues before it leaves Beta.
Google Chrome is in version 2.0.172.31 which is the stable release. There are several beta versions available. I personally don't like Chromes search bar, which is the (IMO) biggest thing about the browser. When you download Chrome, there is no home page, Just the URL bar which doubles as Google search. But, Chrome is Fast. Very Fast. The only browser that comes close to the speed of Chrome would be Safari, and they are very close to each other speed wise. A feature of Chrome, which is both a blessing and a curse, is that each tab is its own separate process. So if one tab is having a problem, you don't have to close the entire browser. Nice huh?? But the problem is, if your like me, I usually have at least 5 tabs open at a time, and quite often I will have more than 10 tabs open. so that's 5-10+ more processes for your computer to worry about. I haven't noticed any real slow downs yet, but i don't like to know my computer is running 65+ processes, when 10 of them are my browser.
So over all, my recommendations for browsers would be:
1. Firefox. A little on the slow side, but if you are a tech savvy person, you will really get into the add-ons after a while. I cant live with out Adblock, and Faviconize tab.
2. Safari. For a streamline look, fast browsing, and an interface that you can get used to in seconds, Safari is simple.
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