Internet Browsers: What Their Features Are and How to Choose the One for You

We use internet browsers every day, so it would make sense to have one that is made especially for each one of us (or close to it) You may already have a browser you have grown used to or have become attached to. But here are some options that you might like to explore! I have reviewed the most popular ones at the time this article was written.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta

Even though it may still be a Beta it's new features look promising, the safety features it has are the safety filter which is actually an enhanced phishing filter. Another one is Domain Highlighting it illustrates in bold the top level domain in your address bar so you can verify that you are going to the site you really want to visit. IE8 also has new tools that make updating and viewing the sites you frequently visit easier to get to. With the accelerators it has you can also highlight info on any page and send it to another website or app. Web Slices also make browsing easier by providing you with one-click access to your favorite sites' updates by placing the information on your toolbar. You can keep track of that competitive eBay auction or your friends' status updates on Facebook. The catch here is that this won't work on just any site. Web developers have to create a compatible accelerator that you can then add to your browser. If the accelerator exists (and we're sure more sites will support this feature in the future), all you have to do is mouse over status content on a page and choose to add it as a Web Slice.

Free
Microsoft
www.microsoft.com
Vista
Xp

Firefox 3

This browser recently launched with several useful tools among these were better security features like instant web site ID which provides you with information on the sites you are purchasing a product. Anti-Malware which protect against worms, trojan horses, and spyware. The browser also has a parental control feature that uses the settings in the OS system. One revised feature, the Password Manager, eliminates pop-ups that ask you whether you want to save passwords. Instead, the Password Manager gives you password management options by integrating a message bar at the top of the page. Firefox 3 also includes thousands of ways to customize your browser with the Add-ons Manager, and makes them easily accessible by integrating them right into the toolbar. Add-ons include widgets for weather, photos, and music, among others, and were easy to install.

Free
Mozilla
www.mozilla.com
Vista
Xp
windows 2000
Mac
Linux

Safari 3.1

This is the latest version of Safari and has been packed full of browsing tools that PC and Mac users can appreciate. Like the other Browsers, Safari has many safety features and pop-up blocking features. A feature you can appreciate a lot is Private browsing which can be enabled through the edit menu so Safari won't store your searches, cookies, history, or downloads. The best thing is even if you forget to turn on Private Browsing you can simply press Reset Safari to delete all stored information from cookies to history. The may updates it provides make it move more fluid and faster than internet explorer and much more simpler.
If you know ho to use iTunes already you will easily adjust to Safari but even if you don't know anything about iTunes you can still use it quite easily, i have barely used iTunes and found Safari extremely easy to use and more convenient as you can easily web surf without errors or problems. Snapback is also extremely helpful because it lets you go back to your first search or starting point, like when you use Google. Another addition to Safari 3 is the Find ability, which lets you search for text on any page by pressing CTRL-F and typing a word in the Search box.

Free
Apple
www.apple.com
Vista
Xp
Mac

Opera 9.5

Opera's latest features make it a strong contender in the Internet browser arena. Opera 9.5 seems to focus mainly on making browsing simpler, though there are also new security features such as Fraud Protection and EV (Extended Validation) certificates to help combat fraudulent Web sites. But security features are only a fraction of what the new Opera has to offer. There are several browsing enhancements such as Quick Find, which lets you search the browser history for not only the titles of the pages you've typed into your browser's Address bar, but also the content of the pages you've visited. Another useful addition is Opera Link, which lets you sync your bookmarks and Speed Dial (more on this later) to other computers or your mobile phone, so you're connected to your favorite sites no matter where you are.

My favorite additions was Opera's Speed Dial, which is basically a home page with visual bookmarks for your favorite sites, available the moment you start Opera. Using Speed Dial was simple. All you have to do is click an empty Speed Dial slot and type in the address of your favorite site, and Opera will add it.

Opera includes other helpful features, such as the ability to resize Web pages for easier reading with Zoom and Fit To Width. Zoom will make text larger, while Fit To Width will resize Web pages that are too wide to fit within your screen. Opera also includes countless ways to customize your browser, with skins, setups, the addition or removal of buttons, and widgets. Skins were easy to download and made the Speed Dial page even more fun to look at and use. Widgets were simple to add, but didn't fit seamlessly with the rest of the browser. In order to access and view your widgets, you have to go to the Widgets menu and select the one you'd like from the list. We thought the widgets should have better integrated into the browser's toolbar.

Free
Opera
Online only

www.opera.com

Vista, XP, Me, 98, Mac, Linux

Maxthon 2.1

Maxthon may not be at the top of the list of well-known browsers, but it's a solid package with plenty of qualities that could make you consider switching. Along with security enhancements such as Trusted Web-site Check and Clean Private Data (which lets you erase your browsing info), Maxthon 2 has a slew of browsing features that are functional and user-friendly. For starters, Super Drag&Drop lets you highlight a keyword in a Web site's text and drag it to the Search box or Address bar for quick, type-free searches. The Undo List helps you recover tabs that you closed by mistake, and even the Back/ Forward history from that session is saved.

One of our favorite features was Split View, which let us view two Web pages side by side, giving us double the research space and the opportunity to compare two sites at once without switching between tabs or windows. Like other browsers, Maxthon offers customization with skins and plug-ins. Some plug-ins even let you make Maxthon more like other browsers. For example, you can download Speed Dial, which looks similar to Opera's Speed Dial. Overall, Maxthon's browser was as solid as the others, but we were often confused by the large number of icons littering the toolbars; at times it seems as though there were more icons than one could use on a regular basis, and their inclusion on the toolbars made regular navigation somewhat difficult. However, because Maxthon is fully customizable, you can remove or add as many icons as you like.

Free
Maxthon
Online only

www.maxthon.com

Vista, XP, Windows 2000