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April 19, 2008

IE, Safari, Flock, Opera and Firefox: tested and rated

Which Web 2.0 browser is the best?

Erik Larkin

Back when the earliest programs for viewing web content simply browsed flat pages of images and text, the name 'browser' truly fit the software. But yesterday's amateur pages have evolved into dynamic, content-rich portals and powerful online programs. For many online habitués, the do-it-all browser has become a PC's single most important program.

Recognising that fact, Apple's Safari, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Mozilla's Firefox are battling to win the nod as your browser of choice.

So which one should you use; Safari 3.1, Firefox 3.0, or Internet Explorer 8.0?

Visit Broadband Advisor for the latest news and reviews about the internet and internet tools.

Apple's latest offering, Safari 3.1, preserves the company's signature focus on clean design and smooth usability, but it lacks any phishing or malware filters.

For its part, Mozilla should have applied the finishing touches to Firefox 3 by the time you read this (we tested the feature-complete beta 5 release). From under-the-hood memory improvements to a major reworking for bookmarks, version 3.0 represents a big step forward.

Whereas the new Firefox and Safari browsers are ready to roll, Microsoft's early beta of Internet Explorer 8.0 remains a work in progress.

Bugs and rough edges are to be expected in a first beta intended for developers and testers. But IE 8 beta 1 provides a glimpse of new features such as WebSlices (which let sites create widgety snippets of information that you can view by clicking a bookmark button) and Activities (which add right-click menu options for looking up selected text and pages on map, translation and other sites) that will distinguish the browser Microsoft eventually releases.

Firefox, IE, and Safari are the three most popular browsers, according to internet usage statistics, but they aren't the only ones available. So we also took a separate look at two worthwhile, free programs; Flock and Opera.

Safari pushes on to PCs

Here's a shocker: Safari, an Apple product now being pushed out to the world via iTunes updates, looks good. The minimalist metallic theme has clean lines and uses space well.

Tabs smoothly link to the bookmarks bar above them, and pop-up notices, such as the one for adding a new bookmark, use animation to flow in and out of the title bar.

Try Safari, and you'll soon notice such nice design touches as a clear load progress indicator (which fills in the address bar) and a helpful blue outline around the currently selected text box on a page. The browser also handles RSS feeds smoothly and can show all of the posts from RSS feed bookmarks gathered in the same bookmark folder in a customisable display.

On the other hand, Safari's use of Mac OS X font technology makes text look slightly fuzzy, as if a faint shadow surrounded each letter. On our monitor, pages looked better when we changed the Font Smoothing setting to Light.

NEXT PAGE: How Safari complies with standards

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Comments received

Opera User said on Sunday, 20 April 2008

way to gloss over just how good Opera is, almost feels like a paid ad for FF and Safari.

Another Opera user said on Sunday, 20 April 2008

Yes I agree Opera User.
I tried firefox after being a long time netscape user. Once I realised how good Opera was firefox was uninstalled.

Another other Opera user said on Sunday, 20 April 2008

I've been using Opera on & off for the last 10 years, and since v9 was released it's been my browser of choice.

For those who actually pay attention, Opera is usually where the innovation happens, and other browsers follow suit.

In my humble opinion it renders faster than Firefox, and is generally a lot more useable. For some reason Firefox bugs me.

Browser said on Monday, 21 April 2008

I am a fan of Opera and have been using it for a few years but the latest Firefox 3, Beta 4 is an improvement worth having and it is now similar to Opera.

dms05 said on Monday, 21 April 2008

It reflects badly on the impartiality of PC Advisor reviews when Opera only gets a tiny mention despite significantly advantages over IE7 and Safari - and in a tiny proportion of the memory used by bloatware from Microsoft and Apple.

Firefox User Number 3.1415926535897932384626433832 said on Monday, 21 April 2008

I've used firefox for ages and never found it lacking except start-up times - IE7 starts quicker. Extensions are great aswell

Another Firefox User said on Monday, 21 April 2008

Yes, I agree with firefox user pi. Great, but needs to load quicker

Opera Fan said on Friday, 25 April 2008

Opera loads web pages a lot faster than IE7 or Firefox. It is light weight and nippy and has all the features I need. I love the well placed zoom control and you get a free email account to boot.

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