What is an Internet Browser?
We have been getting a lot of questions as to how to make our website work best. One of the secrets is to use the best Internet browser. So lets explore what browsers are, what choices you have, and which ones are best.
What is an Internet browser?
A Internet browser is a computer program that enables you to surf the internet.
Like Microsoft Word and Excel, a browser is a completely separate computer program, and you have a lot of choice as to what browser you use to access and view the Internet. Today, we will walk you through the various Internet browsers and help you choose the right one for you.
Importantly, all of the Internet browsers are free, so it won’t cost you anything to switch or upgrade to a new one.
Things that you should demand in your Internet browser are:
- Speed - Helping you surf the Internet faster!
- Tabs - Enabling you to have lots of different websites open at once.
- Search - An easy to use search box to search the net without having to go to google.com first.
What browsers are there?
Chrome
http://www.google.com/chrome
Chrome is the Internet browser that Google has built. Its designed to help you surf the internet faster, and it really does speed up how quickly websites load up.
Some of the great features of Chrome are:
- Faster Internet!
- More screen space! Chrome have their tabs at the top, meaning that the browser takes up less of your screen, leaving viewing room for you.
- Inbuilt search. Chrome’s address bar (where you type in the website addresses) doubles up as a search box. This means you just type in what you want, and it will automatically take you to the Google search results.
Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/
Firefox is a browser supplied by the Mozilla Foundation, a not for profit organisation.
Firefox was created by the Mozilla Foundation to give Microsoft some real competition and help improve the standards of the Internet browsers.
Firefox is best known for its extensions, which are little mini-programs that you can add to your browser to help you as you surf around the web. These extensions, or add ons, are often for advanced users, in particular Internet Marketers love Firefox because the extensions can tell you how popular each website is, how much traffic it is getting and how it is getting that traffic.
Similarly, Firefox has some great bug fixing extensions for programmers.
View the entire list of Firefox extensions
Internet Explorer
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/internet-explorer/products/ie/home
Internet Explorer (IE) is the browser that Microsoft supplies with its Windows computers. It is the most commonly used browser on the Internet, however it is arguably not the best. Programmers are often very frustrated with many of Internet Explorer’s many quirks. These quirks often mean that the website just doesn’t look right (the site and its graphics render on the screen wrong), and that the site loads up slowly.
Making things worse, many Internet Explorer users haven’t upgraded their browser since they first bought their computers. Believe it or not up to 20% of people are still using IE version 5, the version that Microsoft built for the Internet of the year 2000. Let us assure you, the world and the Internet itself have changed a lot since 2000! Imagine using a browser that was built before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, that is exactly what Internet Explorer 5 is.
Safari
http://www.apple.com/safari/
Apple computers come with the Apple browser called Safari. Safari is a reliable and fast browser, and great for the true Apple fanatic. That said, for true performance on your Apple computer you should download the Apple versions of Chrome or Firefox. As you can imagine, Apple doesn’t put as much resources into building, maintaining and upgrading their browser as Google, Firefox or Microsoft do. Given this, you’re most likely to get better results from the others.
What is the best browser?
The race is really between Chrome and Firefox.
If you are after speed and efficiency then Chrome is the browser for you. If you are willing to sacrifice a bit of speed for the ability to configure your browser as you wish, and add some useful extensions then Firefox might be the browser for you.
A final note
If you are still using Internet Explorer, especially an old version of Internet Explorer, we recommend that you switch to Chrome or Firefox, you will be amazed how much better the Internet works for you!
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You missed a major player in Opera. It is by far the superior browser in my opinion.
over a year ago by Brad
