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19 Jun 2011 By AmyBradney-George

What Is The Best Internet Browser?

19 Jun

A Look At The Features And Popularity Of Some Internet Browsers And Who They Will Best Suit.

Browsers are subjective to the user and in some cases, what kind of computer they use. The following describes the top five browsers according to statistics and search engine results.

Internet Explorer – Microsoft

Internet Explorer or IE is the favourite for Windows users as it is created by Microsoft. IE has been part of the Windows operating system since 1995, and most computers hosted by the current operating system, Windows 7, will automatically have IE installed on them.

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The IE software itself is a simple and fast browser that is continuously maintained and updated by Microsoft with private browsing features and tabbed browsing for multi-tasking. The most current version is IE 9 which is only compatible with Windows 7 and Vista Service Pack 2. Quite a few people are still running IE 8 as they have not moved on from the operating system XP.

Safari - Apple

Safari is the Mac equivalent to IE and is Apple’s default browser, included as part of the Mac OS X operating system. It is also the native browser for the operating system iOS for the iPhone and iPad.

It too has all of the core features as IE with private browsing, security features, favourites and tabs. However, the layout, functions and specific features are different from IE and many people will prefer one of these browsers over another.

Mozilla Firefox

Managed by the Mozilla Corporation the current version of Firefox is 4.0.1. This version includes tabbed browsing, spell checking, live bookmarking, private browsing, location-aware browsing (also known as "geolocation" based on the Google service), as well as a integrated search system that uses Google by default in most localizations.

It is also easy to stay in control of downloads with the Firefox download manager features. Firefox is a good alternative to the Windows and Mac default browsers, as it is compatible with most operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Apple Mac OS X.

Google Chrome

Even though Firefox has several Google features, Google’s browser is called Chrome and uses the WebKit layout engine and application framework. It is one of the newest web browsers, being first released as a beta version for Windows on 2 September 2008, with the full version launched on 11 December 2008.

It has been advertised as one of the fastest browsers and holds similar features to that of Firefox and IE, but with better integration of Google features online. Chrome can be used with a the PC, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Opera PC Browser

Opera is "the quiet one" out of all the internet browsers, but still has its own following. It is a good alternative to the other browsers and is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. It is also available for mobile phones and tablets.

It has similar features to the other browsers but also has some of its own touches, for example tab pinning. By right-clicking on a tab, it can be pinned to prevent it from being accidently closed.

Open tabs can be saved in a session and loaded later to open the same pages. This is similar to bookmarking with Firefox and adding tabs to Favourites with IE. All are designed for you to reload the page based on what you are doing at a certain time.

Whilst the above are the most popular browsers due to their commercial awareness and the products they are closely tied with, there are several other browsers that can be found by simply doing an online search.

It is not uncommon to have several browsers on one computer. Overall, browsers are personal choice and while they all have similar features, they are continuously updated by their developers. This can also make the browsers become incompatible with particular websites.

It is also worth noting that some hosting packages cannot be opened through certain browsers, so if you find that your browser is not working as it should, then it may be worth having another browser installed on to your computer as a backup option. You are still able to have your favourite websites/webpages saved to both and once you find your way around the new browser, it means you can always have the best internet browsing options.