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About Web Browsers

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There are four concerns with browsers. These matter in ways both obvious and hidden to normal browsing.

1. Security. There are more ways to put files on your computer than by hitting "download." Here especially Internet Explorer has serious deficiences. Its weaknesses have been targeted for quite a while--even just clicking on a pop-up ad can download spy or adware, for instance. Here, for instance, is a comparison of Firefox 2 and IE 7.

2. Rendering. How well does a browser render a web-page's code? Web writing code, like all software, develops over time, so this is mostly a matter of how current the brower is. Can it read and display current standards set by the W3 Consortium, which sets the standards for web coding languages? Web pages in a browser not up to current standards won't appear correctly--it may jumble page elements, allot white space incorrectly, or simply not display elements it can't read.

3. Ease of use. Tabs are wonderful. So is the ability to read RSS feeds without a reader external to the browser.

4. Speed. More efficient is better. This is partly a matter of how clean the coding is on the web page, which a browser can't control. But it's also a matter of the rendering "engine" which drives the browser. Different browsers can be built on the same engine.

IE tends to lag--sometimes far behind--in all of these categories. There are many browsers for both Windows and MacOS platforms which are both more advanced and just wonderful to use. Some are below. CNet has a page with lots of browsers and browser utilities to download. A further list is kept at the W3 Consortium site. Here is a recent (April 2008) review of browsers for the Mac.

Feel free to change: don't let habit interfere with your on-line security or ease of use. All of those listed here allow you to import bookmarks from IE or other browsers. You can keep several on your machine, if you like, for different purposes. And virtually all are free.

Windows Options	Macintosh Options
Acoo Browser is a relatively new browser for Windows.	Camino. Firefox with an OS X look. Used to be called Chimera. Uses Gecko.
Avant is a fast tabbed browser with lots of features, including RSS support.	Devonagent is very highly rated if you do a lot of research on the web. Only free for a trial period.
Firefox. Becoming a standard. Safe, quick, easy to use, and very free. Uses the Mozilla engine (called Gecko). It is now IBM's in-house browser. It has lots of useful extensions.	Firefox. This is the most popular Mac browser after Safari. In both Mac and Windows versions, this more than any other is very customizable with skins and extensions to expand its capabilities.
Flock is very highly rated, and the browser to use if you are into social networking sites or blogging.	iCab is from Germany. Das Internet-Taxi für den Mac.
Flashpeak's Slim Browser is another fast, tabbed browser which supports RSS feeds.	Flock is very highly rated, and the browser to use if you are into social networking sites or blogging.
Maxthon. Nice. It uses the IE engine, can zap advertisments, is very customizable, and reads RSS feeds.	Seamonkey, formerly Mozilla, includes an entire suite of internet applications.
Opera. Lovely and free; with Firefox this is a top choice.	Omniweb. Perhaps the swankiest of all Mac browsers, but only free for a trial period.
Safari is now available in an increasingly popular version for Windows.	Opera. A beautiful browser; with Firefox/Camino and Safari, this is a great contender for one of the best.
Seamonkey, formerly Mozilla, includes an entire suite of internet applications.	Safari comes standard with OS X, and includes RSS support. Uses the KHTML engine developed for Konqueror, a Linux/Unix utility.
The World Browser is another option with lots of features.	Shiira, from Japan, sports a very clean, and very fast, interface. Uses the KHTML engine.

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