Kerkia

Web browser

Background

A web browser is what you use to explore the world wide web. Windows comes typically with Internet Explorer but there are interesting alternatives to this tool.

Recommendation

We want to recommend two tools here, for two different types of users. We believe those tools outperform Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as well as Safari and Opera, the other usual contenders in this category, though we will not expand here on why and how, as well as the many outsiders such as SRWare Iron (discreet Chrome derivative), K-Meleon (lightweight Firefox), Avant and Maxthon (Internet Explorer shells), etc.

Firefox is the tool we are using and we recommend it for most users, in particular for those of you who don’t mind customizing your applications and, in this particular case, downloading extensions to better leverage the key advantages of Firefox. We present our favourite Firefox extensions in another article but some of the key features we like with Firefox are the two extensions for bookmark synchronization (Mozilla Weave and Xmaks) and the many extensions for homepage customization, menu and tab customization, mouse moves, etc.

Google Chrome is a newcomer in this area, well it’s been new for about a year now, and we recommend it to the most basic users, i.e. those of you who do not want to bother customizing, installing extensions, updating, etc. as, out of the box, Google Chrome comes with everything you’ll need. Google Chrome is the simplest browser to use, its automatic update is liked by many users, and it is arguably the fastest browser too, with a high level of compatibility with web sites and a strong ease-of-use. It used to lack ad blocking, extensions, mouse gesture and many other useful features that come typically as extensions in Firefox or other browsers, but the very latest version does now support both bookmark synchronization, with a Google account, as well as extensions. And there are already tons of such extensions, including all most rated Firefox extensions. At the pace this browser is evolving, it might well soon replace Firefox in this recommendation!