New Web Browser Choices: Which Is Best?

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New Web Browser Choices: Which Is Best?
by Aaron Turpen

There are a myriad of choices in Web browsers nowadays. If you're still using Internet Explorer (IE), you're probably unaware of the other options available to you--which may be to your detriment.

I've reviewed the best alternatives to IE and have compiled my results below. The names haven't changed much since the last article I did on this subject two years ago, but the browsers themselves certainly have.

My (new) favorite of the group is Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser. It's available for free at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/. This is the fastest, least-encumbered browser you can get. It's much safer than IE security-wise and is extremely modular, so you can ad only what you want to ad to the base browser for plug-ins and so forth. This means it stays lean and mean. It offers features that people who spend a lot of time surfing the Web demand: tabbed browsing, popup blocking, password keeping, and easy-to-use security features (like wiping your histories and caches). Highly recommended.

Internet Explorer still has its fans, though I can't figure out why. It's still considered the standard in Web browsing since it's what most users (who never change their PC's base configuration) are going online with. If you have Windows Service Pack 2 installed, then your IE now has popup blocking, but that's about all it has in the surfer's requirements area. It's very slow and hasn't been updated in quite some time. On top of all that, it's the #1 target for browser-based attacks from hackers and viruses. You can get IE at Microsoft by going to http://www.microsoft.com.

Netscape has a newer version and includes Sun Java 2, bringing the total download to a whopping 24 megabytes. While not as slow as IE, this seems to be the ultimate objective of Netscape…to get to be as big as IE and to make sure you are totally aware of other America Online and Netscape products… in that order. Skip this one if you know what's good for you. It's only marginally better than IE, but the download will kill it for most. http://www.netscape.com

My old favorite, Opera, has recently undergone another upgrade. It's still fast and has a lot of really awesome features, like built-in RSS feeding. The only problems I now have with Opera are its slower load times (coming in behind Firefox), hard-to-find configuration options, and the ads. While the ads aren't blocking your Web viewing, they are kind of annoying and cost $39 to get rid of (registration of the browser). Firefox and the others don't require this, making Opera the only non-free browser on my list. Still, Opera remains a Web junkie's dream, especially for developers. Tons of awesome features and well worth the download: http://www.opera.com.

There are literally hundreds of Web browsers out there, but the above are the big names. Again, I highly suggest scrapping Internet Explorer for either Firefox or Opera. You'll find your Web surfing faster, safer, and easier with these browsers.


About the Author
Aaron is the proprietor of Aaronz WebWorkz and publishes two weekly newsletters online: The Aaronz WebWorkz Weekly Newsletter and Aaronz Auction Newsletter. He is also the author of "The Layman's Handbook to Doing Business Online" from which this article is taken.