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All About Web Browsers

What is a Web Browser?

A Web Browser is the software that is loaded on your PC or Mac to allow you to view web pages on the internet. The browser interprets HTML and other code and then returns a web page in a graphical format. It is a popular mis-conception that what browser you have doesn't matter. 'They are all the same...aren't they?' Well, no, they aren't all the same. Some users aren't even aware that they have a choice when it comes to Web Browsers so I thought I'd put together a quick guide to the most popular Browsers out there and explain the pros and cons of each. NB: You can also click on the logos to visit each home page.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer or IE is the Microsoft Web Browser and it still dominates the Browser market. The main reason for this is it ships with Windows and often users don't care what Browser they have on their machine. IE was first introduced in 1995 and, by 1998, was the most popular Browser in use. IE has pretty much retained that crown ever since. Although there are versions of IE 5.5 still hanging around, the popular versions start at IE6. There are a lot of companies who have stuck doggedly to IE6 as their 'standard' Browser. The issue with IE6 is the fact that it can be a bit 'buggy' when it comes to displaying a web page. Quite often a web designer will have to use CSS styles aimed specifically at IE6 to make it display the same as other Browsers.

The other frustrating thing about having so many copies of IE6 still floating around out there is that it does not support transparency of PNG (Portable Network Graphic) images. You get left with a light blue background which can be very annoying.

IE7 was the first IE release to feature 'Tabbed Browsing'. This means you can have multiple web pages open at the same time. Previously you would have had to open a fresh copy of the Browser if you wanted to keep web pages open. At the time of writing this, IE8 is the latest release of Internet Explorer and it seems to be gathering pace in usage already. Some of the new features on IE8 include;

  1. Accelerators - quick access to web services. On a restaurant web site, for example, you can click within the page to get maps, news, information about the restaurant, blog about it, or share it on Facebook
  2. Web Slice - keep up with changes to the sites you care about most
  3. Compatibility View - for web pages designed for older browsers
  4. Search Suggestions - get suggested content as you type
  5. New Tab features - allow you to open accidentally closed tabs, and group related tabs together using color codes
  6. Tab isolation - prevents a faulty web site from crashing the whole browser. Only the tab with the faulty page will close
  7. InPrivate - browsing the web without saving any data (like passwords, cookies, browsing history, etc.)
  8. SmartScreen - protects you against installation of malware, or malicious software which can compromise your data, privacy, and identity, and also damaging your computer and valuable data

My personal feelings about IE as a Browser have been totally coloured by my experiences trying to get pages to display correctly in IE6. I'm afraid that I can never return to IE even though the reports of features on IE8 are very favourable indeed.

Firefox

Firefox is a free 'Open Source' Browser from Mozilla. It entered an IE dominated market in late 2004. Since then it has grown in popularity mainly due to the amount of customisation options available. Because Firefox is Open Source people un-connected with Mozilla are able to develop add-ons. You can 'pimp' your Browser with add-ons from colour changes or 'skins' to applications designed to make interacting with your favourite social networking site a real joy. Because Firefox centred around the user, and let the Browser be manipulated in this way to truly customise the Browsing experience, it soon took off in popularity. In particular web designers were chuffed as hell with the 'Developer Tools' options. I use them all the time to pick sites apart with the 'View CSS' option or to validate code on the fly.

The most recent release of Firefox at the time of writing this is Firefox 3.5.1. Features of this new release include;

  1. Session Restore - go back to where the last crash occured
  2. Super Speed - view Web pages way faster, using less of your computer’s memory
  3. Anti-Phishing and Anti Malware - enjoy the most advanced protection against online bad guys
  4. Awesome Bar - find the sites you love in seconds (and without having to remember clunky URLs)
  5. Private Browsing - surf the Web without leaving a single trace

As I said before, I would not be without a copy of Firefox when developing a website. I do find some of the add-ons a bit pointless but someone thought they were a good idea and they are optional. I have recently switched to Firefox 3.5 and it is noticeably faster then older releases which had the tendancy to be a bit 'clunky'.

Safari

Safari is the Apple Browser and ships with the Mac. I do not have a lot of experience with Safari as I don't own a Mac. Having spoken to Mac owners though it would appear that Safari is executed with the same style and panache as other Apple software. From 'Coverflow' browsing (just like your iPod) to it's 'Nitro Engine' it is an attractive, quick and user-friendly Browser.

At the time of writing this I am reliably informed that Safari is currently at version 4. Some features of Safari include;

  1. Coverflow - cover Flow offers a highly visual way of reviewing your site history and bookmarked sites, presenting full-page previews of the websites that look exactly as they did when you last visited them
  2. Top Sites - Safari 4 tracks the sites you browse and ranks your favorites, presenting up to 24 thumbnails on a single page
  3. Full History Search - Safari introduces a dramatic new way to revisit sites, letting you flip through full-page previews of the sites you visited in the past
  4. Nitro Engine - on even the most demanding Web 2.0 applications, Safari delivers blazingly fast performance thanks to the industry’s most advanced rendering technologies
  5. Developer Tools - developers will find the best set of development tools ever included in a browser

I don't feel I can comment on Safari as a Browser so Mac users can make up their own minds.

Google Chrome

Still my favourite Browser for plain old 'Surfing'. When Google decided to develop their own Browser they decided to re-think the whole way a Browser is put together. It is based on the Webkits code used in Safari but was the first to have a number of features now emulated by other Browsers such as IE and Firefox. Google Chrome runs each tab isolated from another, which prevents one tab from crashing another. This means that, if one page you are looking at decides to 'hang' on you then the rest of your browsing is not affected. 'Aw Snap' is a phrase familiar to all Chrome users. It is also more secure, and better for the memory; when a tab is closed its memory use is eliminated. Chrome features your top nine most visited sites when you first open it up which makes your browsing rituals that much more pleasant. My rituals include the BBC website, Dreamweaver Club Forums and Yoto Creative.

At the time of writing this Chrome is up to version 2 although version 3 is coming soon we are told. Features of Chrome include;

  1. Instant Bookmarks - one click bookmarking for your favourite sites
  2. Application Shortcuts - use web apps without opening your browser. Application shortcuts can directly load your favourite online apps
  3. Dynamic Tabs - you can drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs as you wish - quickly and easily
  4. Incognito Mode - don't want pages that you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing
  5. Simple Downloads - no intrusive download manager; you see your download's status at the bottom of your current window

I downloaded Chrome when version 1 was in beta development and it is still the Web Browser that I open out of habit. It is my default Browser for quite a few reasons which you won't want me to go into here. Best of all it updates itself to the latest version quietly and in the background. If only Microsoft would take this approach web designers would have forgotten about IE6 a long time ago. I would thoroughly recommend Chrome has a place on your desktop somewhere.

Opera

Opera started out as a research project in Norway's telecom company, Telenor, in 1994, and branched out into an independent development company named Opera Software ASA in 1995. If your Web site works in Opera, you can be certain that it is standard compliant! Simply write your pages in standards-compliant code, and your site will work in all major browsers and on all major platforms and operating systems. Opera is the preferred browser for a number of small devices like mobile phones and hand-held computers.

Opera is currently in version 9.6. However, version 10 beta is now available for you to try out. Some of the new features of version 9.6 include;

  1. Expanded Opera Link - take your favorite search engines and the browser history you enter wherever you go
  2. Optimized Opera M2 - the built-in e-mail client, Opera M2, now includes "low-bandwidth mode" to retrieve mails even faster when bandwidth is limited
  3. Prioritized e-mail - Opera M2 has two new ways to manage e-mail conversations. Keep an eye on important threads or ignore less important threads
  4. Increased speed - improves the quick responsiveness and page loading of Opera 9.5
  5. Previewed feeds - look before you feed. Now you can see an RSS feed's content before subscribing to it or even bookmarking it
  6. Improved fluency - Opera adds support for Indonesian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil languages

The best thing I have found about Opera is that, if my hard web design work displays correctly, then I know I am doing something right!

The Rest...

Other Browsers are available. I have not covered Flock, Konqueror, K-Meleon or Galeon to name but a few. The thing I hope you take away from this article is that you do have a massive choice when it comes to what Browser you run and that you don't have to stick to the Browser that ships with your preferred Operating System.

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