Which web browser should I use?

Put most simply, your web browser is the application you use to visit web sites.  When it comes to choosing a web browser, you can afford to play around a bit.  After all, virtually all of them are free, so there’s no financial risk with trying out a different application.

The big names in the game right now are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and, mostly if you use a Mac, Safari.  Any of these browsers will work reasonably well for you, but I do have a couple of suggestions.

First, Internet Explorer (IE) is still the dominant browser out there.  This is slowly changing, as IE loses market share, but for now it’s the 800-pound gorilla.  That means that most every site out there will have included IE in their testing, and there are some sites — particularly secure sites, like banks — that don’t always function properly with other browsers.  For that reason alone, you should keep IE installed on your PC, if only as backup.  If you have a Windows machine, you’ll already have IE installed (oh, joy), so you don’t have to take any extra steps there.

That said, I have also found some other sites (like WordPress) that don’t always display well in IE.  This is when it’s handy to have a second browser handy.  My personal preference is Firefox; it’s clean, behaves similarly to the familiar IE, and the add-ons you can get for it can be very useful.  Firefox came out with tabbed browsing long before IE did, which firmly established it in my mind as the more innovate, user-friendly browser of the two.

Opera is another popular alternative to IE, though I didn’t like the interface as much as Firefox.  Still, it’s a fast and stable browser, and worth checking out if Firefox isn’t your thing.

Chrome, by Google, is a relatively recent entry into the browser wars.  The concept is interesting, in that if one of your windows crashes, it won’t shut down your entire browser.  In my experience, though, Chrome doesn’t do much — yet — that’s new or different enough to switch me off Firefox.

Finally, Mac users will find Safari installed on their systems as the default.  Like all Mac products, Safari has a sexy interface.  It works perfectly well, so I’ve had no complaints with it as a primary browser on an Apple machine.

My personal setup is to use Firefox as my primary browser for all my personal surfing and shopping, and to bring up IE if I need to do some banking.  Each of these browsers will tout their security enhancements, but my opinion is that if you keep your computer up to date and use some common sense, you’ll be pretty safe with any of these browsers.

photo credit: Universe Firefox