Hi everybody. Every time you turn on your computer and you want to surf the Internet, you open up your favorite browser and go to your home page. Most of us don’t think much about the complex task that is actually taking place to display all those crisp images and text. All this work is being done by the interaction of your browser and the operating system. In the early days of Windows when Windows 95 was introduced, Netscape was the main browser that was used with almost 85% of the market share. Once Microsoft started integrating the Internet Explorer browser with its operating system, the tides started to turn. Internet Explorer started to gain in popularity over its rival. Netscape eventually became Mozilla, which is the distributor of the famous browser called Firefox.

In late 2004, Internet Explorer enjoyed its highest usage, which was at almost 93%. Since then, there has been a slow but steady decline of its use. Browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Maxthon have all increased browser security and in many cases speed as well. The early versions of Internet Explorer had plenty of security flaws. In fact, if you are using anything less then IE 7, you are at a very high risk of getting hacked or acquiring viruses.

In our tests, we have found that the newest versions of Internet Explorer including version 8 and 9 both appear to have problems viewing certain websites. In addition, we have found a flaw where both IE 8 and 9 loose it’s connection with Flash and even though Flash is installed as expected, the browser has trouble connecting with the movie or game you are trying to display.

One of our favorite browsers to use is Mozilla Firefox. In our tests, the browser is fast, functional and has lots of bells and whistles to play around with. It is secure as well. One thing nice about this browser is the safe mode function. If you hold the Shift key while clicking the shortcut, Firefox will open in safe mode and that will allow you to reset many of it’s functions in the event you are having problems with the browser.

There is one more browser I need to mention, it’s called Maxthon. This is probably one of the browsers that is the least known about, mainly because it is not advertised like most of the others. This browser is wicked fast and has some really cool features like Reader Mode, Night Mode, Mouse Gestures and much more. It is my browser by choice and is the only one I use. The browser has two modes of operation: Lightning mode and Retro Mode. Lightning mode works best for most websites but some sites like e-mail and banking sites might need to use the older Retro Mode to display properly.

In short, it is probably a matter of opinion on what the best browser is but my vote goes to Maxthon. Keep up the good work guys!

 

Author: Joe Zelenak, Staff Writer