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Best Free Web BrowserBack in the early 1990's When the World Wide Web was young, there was only one web browser worth using: Netscape. Then Microsoft gave us Internet Explorer and subsequently started including it with their OS. Thus began the browser wars and IE eventually emerged as the clear winner. Today Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is a competent browser with enough features to meet the needs of most users but is difficult to recommend due to on-going security concerns. In the past IE has been a focus for security attacks and there is little to suggest this will change with the release of IE7. Additionally, Microsoft has a poor track record for speedily fixing IE defects and this has left users open to drive-by attacks and other forms of zero-day exploits. This has opened up a new set of browsers that are feature rich, very secure, and super fast. When it comes to web browsers, everyone has an opinion. Every web browser will have a specific feature set that appeals to some while not appealing to others. The criteria used for selecting browsers in this review are the following:
When it comes right down to it, the best web browser is one that allows you view the Web the way that YOU want. The browsers listed below are, in this editor's opinion, some of the best at doing this by offereing ease of use, flexibility, expandability, security, and great feature sets while simultaneously doing their prime function of displaying HTML pages. There are several excellent alternatives with Mozilla Firefox a solid first choice. It's safer than IE, so safe in fact that many users have reported no spyware infections since they started using the product. It also browses a tad faster than IE, is very stable and is more standards compliant. The program loads slower than IE but once running, it positively zips along. With tabbed browsing and over 2000 free extensions (add-ons) that allow you to customize your experience, it provides most users with a major surfing upgrade. Firefox is now my everyday browser though I still leave IE7 on my PC for the occasional web site that's designed around IE's non-standard features. An equal first choice is Opera. It's a speed demon; probably the fastest of all the common browsers. But it's much more than that; it's full featured, standards compliant and safe. Just as Firefox is extensible through add-ins, Opera can be enhanced using Widgets, though there are not nearly as many of these available as Firefox extensions. Then again, it doesn't need as many extensions as a lot of the features added by Firefox add-ins are already available built into the standard Opera browser. There's just so much to like about Opera V9 that you could easily create a case that it's better than Firefox. Indeed, if you could get an Opera replacement for some of your key Firefox add-ins, you''d probably switch. Users who don't want to drift too far from the Microsoft stable can get some of the feature advantages of Firefox and Opera by using one of the many customized shells for Internet Explorer such as Maxthon and Avant. The main selling point for these products used to be tabbed browsing but now that this is available in IE7 it's hard to create a case for their general recommendation. Still if you need a specialized feature they are worth considering. On the downside these shells share most of the same security problems as IE as they utilize the IE engine. Last but not least is K-Meleon, a slimmed down cousin of Firefox that's optimized for Windows. Of the four browsers I use on different PCs, K-Meleon is the quickest loading and along with Opera, the fastest for surfing. On the downside there are only a limited number of add-ons and plug-ins available so you are pretty well limited to the features available in the standard product. If you are the type of person who prefers performance to bells and whistles you should definitely try K-Meleon. Product Specifications: Mozilla Firefox Opera Maxthon Avant KMeleon |
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