While Safari and Internet Explorer are great, they’re
like living with your parents: You’re born into it and eventually you need to explore the outside world.
These browsers come with your computer and for the best experience you should try to expand your
e-horizons.
That analogy may not be perfect because going with Internet Explorer can be a great choice. Experimenting is
a worthwhile exercise because a browser can dramatically change the way you interact with the Internet. Each
one provides features and add-ons that you may love or you may have never even realized you needed.
Yet, the selection of free browsers is expansive. There are favourites like Mozilla Firefox and Google
Chrome, but it would be nearly impossible to find the diamond in the rough given how much “rough” there
is.
So here’s a little list to help you on your browsing way, and hopefully it can help evolve the enjoyment of
your Internet experience.
Internet Explorer 8 – IE is great for parental controls on top of the standard features that
all top-flight browsers have. It’s fast and secure, but it can be frustrating to deal with all of the
confusing security pop-ups.
The greatest thing about IE is that you know it will work with every website. Some simply need it or they
won’t be displayed properly.
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 – After its slow start-up speed, Firefox zooms along and offers security
plus a nice-looking, intuitive interface. It also has great add-ons so you can tweak what you see or add
brand new features. My personal favourite is a
feature that lets you download YouTube videos to your computer. Firefox is ideal for all-around use by
the intermediate user.
Google Chrome – Chrome takes high-powered features and makes them unbelievably simple. Web
applications can run in a designated window and feel like distinctive software. You can also create desktop
shortcuts that can take you to a full-screen version of what you want on the web. If you’re a less-is-more
kind of person, this is your browser (unless you own a Mac, which it isn’t compatible with — so less is
less).
Opera 9.6 – Opera is the dark horse of web browsers. It has a surprisingly fantastic voice
command feature where you can navigate the web and even have Opera read text to you. You can also view
different websites using mouse gestures,
letting you browse faster than you ever have. All it’s missing are parental controls, and some websites
aren’t compatible with Opera as it’s lesser-known.
Safari – Safari shares many qualities with top-rated browsers like Firefox and IE 8, and
therefore is fantastic if you want something fast and intuitive for a Mac. However, it is lacking in the
security and parental controls departments, although owning a Mac makes up for the security holes.
Maxthon 2.5 – Maxthon does very well with speed and usability. You can drag and drop links
from other programs like Microsoft Office Word right into the browser and Maxthon also utilizes the mouse
gestures feature, as well as anti-freeze technology. At the end of each session, you can also save all of
your sites so you can start where you ended — great if you’re interrupted by browsing. It is incredibly
reliable, but doesn’t have too many features or add-ons. Nonetheless, its quirks could be right for you; More
than 300 million people have downloaded it.
Flock 2 – Got to check Facebook, MySpace and Twitter all at once? Flock is designed for you
to share and receive life stories through a “Media Bar,” blog editor and tracker of any updates on your
social networking sites. It can also use a number of Firefox add-ons. While Flock is very secure, it doesn’t
hold up to other browsers in that it doesn’t have basics like tabbed browsing, integrated search engine or
even a spell checker. However, it’s an ideal secondary browser for keeping in touch with friends.•
Photo by - Leif Parker
