A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily access information provided on many Web pages at many Web sites by traversing these links.

Leading Web Browsers

Windows Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is the latest web browser developed by Microsoft in the long running Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and is the default browser for the upcoming Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Firefox had 22.05% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of March 2009, making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide, after Internet Explorer.

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google and based on the WebKit layout engine and application framework. In March 2009, Chrome became the world's fourth most widely-used browser, with 1.23% usage.

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. The current stable release of the browser is 3.2.1 (Macintosh) and 3.2.2 (Windows), but the Apple website more prominently displays the Safari 4 Beta, a pre-release version, for users to download. A public beta of Safari 4 was released on February 24, 2009. Safari has an 8.23% market share as of March 2009.

From Microsoft IE to Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome to Apple Safari, all have upgraded their browser adding a variety of new elements, security updates and a host of next-gen navigational features. Now which is the best browser among the four, lets’ check on different parameters.

Speed

IE8 by Microsoft is faster in almost every respect. It loads faster, switches pages faster, and renders complex graphics and videos faster than previous versions. Firefox 3 claims that improvements to the javascript engine as well as profile guided optimization have enhanced the performance of Firefox 3.0. Safari 4 by Apple claims it to be the world's fastest Web browser which may makes it up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, and Google Chrome. Updated version of Chrome by Google aimed at the general public since Google entered the browser business six months ago.

Security

IE8 provides protection against malware and known phishing scam sites and also protect against threat, "cross-site scripting," in which hackers insert code into legitimate Web pages that compromise peoples' computers without them knowing it. New version of Firefox 3 has enhanced malware protection which warns users when they enter a site which can install viruses, spyware, Trojans or other malware. Updated version of Safari 4 includes phishing and malware protection, anti-virus integration, cookie blocking, parental controls and option to customize offline database storage size. Chrome regularly keeps on downloading a list of harmful sites. This is the Internet search giant's attempt to fight malware and phishing attacks.

Navigation

IE8 by Microsoft browser introduces Tab Groups, in which, when one tab is opened from another, the new tab is placed next to the originating tab and color coded, so that users can quickly see which tabs have related content. New version Firefox 3 makes it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks. Safari 4 has new preview for favorite websites and new tabs. Called Top Sites, the new feature lets users preview a listing of favorite websites without navigating to a new screen. Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar. The browser has an address bar `omnibox' with auto-completion features. It offers search suggestions, top pages that a user visited and pages he didn’t visit but are popular.

Key feature additions

IE8 packs a new feature called Accelerators which allows users to highlight text on a website and choose from a variety of functions, including search engines, language translation or map displays and Web Slices, which is designed to allow you to subscribe to frequently-updated portions, or "slices," of certain websites. Firefox 3 promises secured data protection. Safari 4 debuts a new feature called "Cover Flow" which provides easy reviewing of site history and bookmarked websites, which presents previews on what the pages looked like when a user visited them. Chrome offers a Seed Dial feature, which gives users a view of their most visited Web pages in 9 screenshot thumbnails. It will also prevent the whole browser from crashing.

Bookmarking

IE8 can save Favorites, RSS Feeds, and Web Slices to the Favorites bar that appears across the top of the browser, quickly navigating to the sites and content they want. Firefox 3.0 can add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click. Through Smart Bookmarks Folder users can access recently-bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as most-frequently visited pages. Places Organizer will help users view, organize and search through all bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store frequent searches. Safari 4 has Auto-Click bookmarks feature that lets users automatically open the bookmarks inside a bookmark folder, each in a separate tab. Chrome has a bookmark manager (Ctrl+Shift+B) to better organize bookmarks and folders.

Private browsing

IE8 includes a mode for Web browsing that does not remember what sites were visited nor stores small data files called cookies. Chrome’s Incognito mode lets users create an "incognito" window where "nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged onto your computer." Firefox 3 clears private date from the Edit - Preferences - Privacy dialogue box. Safari 4 can protect your personal information. Safari doesn’t save or cache any personal information you enter or pages you visit.

Some days ago I read an article on Slashdot that I think deserves to have created more of a splash than it did. Amazing that we didn’t notice earlier when Chrome was released, that this could trigger a change with Mozilla.

The owners of the crazy-successful browser that most web professionals use, has a three-year contract with Google.

Slashdot raises the question: what next for Mozilla? It is a reasonable assumption that Google won’t want to renew the contract.

Let’s look at what’s involved here:

1. Google would not have developed Chrome if they weren’t intending to assume an even larger share of the online search market: the reasons why they’d want their own browser are obvious. They can now monitor even more closely what we’re all doing on the Web.



2. This looks as if it is going to eventually turn into a showdown between the two browsers. Personally I think the balance will remain as there are two distinct user-groups: one clearly finds Chrome an advantage because of its speed, but the other loves the speed of Chrome but cannot forsake all the delicious addons that now come as standard with FireFox. But even Chrome’s speed is not an absolute: Adam Pash of LifeHacker reported back in September that if you strip the addons from FireFox, there’s no clear winner on speed issues.



3. For now, FireFox remains the only credible challenger to the universally-hated Internet Explorer.



4. Mozilla’s FireFox has something of an advantage because it has a dedicated group of followers: some of whom will even stick for ‘old time’s sake.’



5. There is a growing group of disaffected Google users (myself included) who will opt for another browser even if Chrome is clearly the more practical option because they are seriously concerned about Google’s present monopoly over all things Web.

There are varying points of view on this. As one comment on the Slashdot article put it:

“The most likely future for Mozilla is a continued partnership with Google. If Google ends its deal with Firefox, Google would be cutting itself off from the only viable challenger to IE. After all, Chrome only recently passed 1% in share of browser use.

Google needs Mozilla to keep putting the bones to Redmond.”

My personal take? I sincerely hope that Google doesn’t renew its contract with Mozilla and that a new contract is forged between Mozilla and a single search engine, or maybe even a group of smaller search engines. I don’t like monopolies: they lead to dangerously powerful institutions and a slip in standards.

We’d love to hear what you think: which will it be ultimately? Chrome or FireFox, and will Google renew its contract with Mozilla?

Seriously, are there any web designers who actually like Internet Explorer or as I like to call it "Exploder"? Who could possibly like designing websites for a slow running browser that consistently has problems displaying text, images, columns, properties, etc., with the added bonus of perpetual crashes? I just can't imagine. One thing I do know is that Internet Explorer is a giant thorn in the side of most web designers. As web designers we are constantly cross checking browsers for compatibility. And there's one browser that really stands out for causing problems and hours of trouble shooting. That's right - Internet Exploder! Even worse, we have to worry about more than one version. There's IE5, IE6, IE7, IE8, and the cousin everyone hates Vista. They all have their own special problems and quarks. It's especially brilliant when you fix one problem and it creates a new one in another version.

Until we get rid of Exploder completely... we've put together a short list of common problems that can really make a website ugly in IE (just pick a version). Oh, their solutions are listed too just incase you feel it's necessary to cater to the Exploder machine.

1. IE6 double margin bug when using float property on a div Common, but at least it's easy to fix. If you use margins on a floated DIV, most of the time but not always, it will double your margin value. The solution is simple. Add display:inline property.

2. Height:100% on a position absolute div not working. It doesn't understand the 100% because it's IE6. You must add a fixed height to it's parent. If you want to have 100% of your body you need to add height:100% on your html and body elements.

3. Why aren't my PNG's Transparent? Surprise! Another thing IE6 doesn't understand. Here's the patch: back\ground-color: transparent; filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src="yourPNG.png", sizingMethod="crop");

4. My floated columns are stacking instead of floating side by side. This is pretty common too. If you have a div, an input, or anything larger than your column width, it will probably move under the other columns. Solution: Look inside your column for an element that is larger than your column width and correct it.

5. Why aren't my list bullets aligned with my text? Because people are still using Internet Exploder. . .don't worry you probably have a top padding on your list element (<li>, etc.). Just put a top margin instead and that should fix the problem on all versions of Explorer.

6. Why is my website centered in every browser except Internet Explorer. You've gotta love that! You are probably missing your DOCTYPE code at the very top of your page right above the and tags. This code may look unnecessary, but don't be fooled... make sure you keep it in your page.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html> <head>

As long as Internet Explorer exists there will be people finding ways to fix it's bugs. But let's ask ourselves... is it really necessary to continue catering to Internet Explorer? Maybe if we stop going out of our way to make things work on Internet Explorer it will just go away. There are plenty of Web Browsers out there now like; FireFox, Mozilla, Opera, and Safari that simply don't have all the design issues that Exploder has. Web Designers, it's time to band together and put an end to this conspiracy - Let your clients know that there are alternatives.

There's been a lot of hype, and even more anti-hype, the last couple of days about the recent release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). Along with the usual Microsoft bashing, there have been articles stating that IE8 won't save Microsoft's dwindling market share.

So lets recap the situation and revisit exactly why IE will continue to remain the majority choice out there for many years to come.

Firstly let's look at the numbers. Yes IE's market share has slipped over the last few years, mainly due to Firefox. Chrome and Opera get about a percentage point each, and certainly have their fans, but no serious competition. However, and this is important, IE's share hasn't slipped enough to make any difference in the past few years.

The reason's simple, good old IE6. Now in modern terms IE6 is a pretty poor browser. No tabs, insufficient security, poor CSS standards compliance. Let's look again at the numbers. The fact is that about the same number of people use IE6 (24%) as use FireFox 3 (26%).

This a a truly startling number, and even though numbers about Microsoft's browser share slipping to Firefox over the last few years have been loudly publicized, this has not. What is says is that at least one in four people simply do not care about having a modern browser, they don't see the need for tabs, add-ins and all the bells and whistles. All this despite Firefox being promoted on Google's own homepage, full page ads in the New York Times and a huge groundswell of support. The fact is that after several years of Firefox leading IE in technology the same number stuck with IE6 as have bothered to move to Firefox.

IE's launch was quiet, it wasn't announced loudly, and nothing was leaked to the press before hand. Understatement was the word of the day, for what is a major update to one of the world's most used software applications. So why is that?

Vince Vizzaccaro of Net Applications quote that was reblogged all over the place simply does not apply to IE8. He said "If I were Microsoft, I would do something more on the Mozilla model. I'd be a lot more optimistic [about IE8's chances] if there was a large public announcement that it was available."

Microsoft know something that Vince has failed to realize. They've already won. They didn't need a big hoopla of a huge launch. The guys who switched to Firefox are very unlikely to ever switch back to IE, that would be like vegan's ordering up a pastrami sandwich, it's just not going to happen. A big launch would gain IE nothing, as they will slowly convert the user base through Windows Update and installations on new PCs. They're also stemming the tide of new defectors to Firefox as the browser gap narrows. There just isn't that much difference in browsers anymore, certainly when it comes to rendering HTML.

As software developers there are lessons here. Microsoft, after some mistakes in the past have come up with a solid and confident approach to slowly and systematically remain at the top. They've learnt the lessons of big promises that have left egg on their face in the past, and have come up with a solid applicaiton that's clearly an improvement and gives users features that they actually want.

Internet Explorer 8 has been designed to improve the performance of web applications. This is especially significant as more of our computing tasks are moving off the desktop and into web applications sponsored by Google and Java related services.

The new browser also contains each webapp in its own tab, allowing it to be saved even if other tabs crash. CSS support has been improved, with standard improvements in SVG and other audio/visual support to be added in later versions, it appears.

Other features are much new and improved, too. IE8 has a smarter address bar than before. Start typing a URL and a drop-down offers suggestions from your recent history and/or favorites, returning preliminary results as you type. It also allows easy addition of a plug-in search engine to most any websites, complete with images, text and page descriptions.

IE8 even has a browsing mode to protect against scripting and other attacks. You can even make context sensitive commands when you right-click on different page elements, for example by being given options to "Blog this" or "Search for this" or "Translate this." Try it, you''ll easily figure it out.

There are new little features that will please, like a new bookmark manager and the ability to isolate and print a specific part of any page.

As most know, Mozilla has been ahead of the curve on many of these features, such as the smart address bar and the security protections for a long time. Opera is way ahead on emerging standards like those applying to CSS and HTML. Google Chrome too is ahead with its private browsing mode, with the ability to isolate web applications within tabs.

Microsoft's IE8 is faster than IE7, although it does use up more memory. Yet, it's still not the fastest or the most innovative of the browsers available. Overall, it serves the mainstream user well with its broader affinity for most on and offline applications, reflecting the reality that up to 75% of the web is particularly Microsoft friendly.

Presently, IE8 is a manual download- that may change in the near future for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and 3/ Vista users.

The browser that probably has been one of the strongest rivals for the popular Microsoft Internet Explorer is Mozilla Firefox, who officially released the third edition accompanied by the sense of expectancy of million users around the world.

Unlike other browsers, like the Explorer 7 or Opera 9.5, that have implemented important changes in their operation and image, Firefox 3 appears to be self-confident to maintain the style of its interface very similar those of its predecessors. Nevertheless, there are important changes that turn it into a worthy competitor in the browser race. Some the features that are to be listed first are that Firefox 3 is a browser with enhanced security and a pretty good performance; but if we take a closer look, it will show some of the new characteristics of the program.

Making a fast reconnaissance, some of the improvements that can be found at glance are the changes in the navigation toolbar. The menus that were unfolded as options for the Back and Forward buttons had been replaced by a single button that simplifies the navigation between the last fifteen visited pages sorting them in the order in which they were visited. The URL bar was also taken to the surgery room to add some extra functionality that helps to improve the browsing experience by doing it easier some trivial tasks like adding bookmarks or RSS (Simple Really Syndication) subscriptions.

The Bookmark Toolbar also has some interesting changes. The Most Visited option was added to it. This motivated my curiosity during a few hours, since it obtains information of your navigation and builds an intelligent list of directions based on the pages that had been loaded recurrently.

Another aspect that had improvements was the Bookmarks Management. The new features give to the bookmark and subscriptions handling a new meaning making things a lot easier. The Bookmarks Manager, as well as the History Management, was improved so that it looks and feels like a file manager, this makes that to manage the stored URLs you just have to drag and drop it from one folder to another, without worrying that you have placed the item in the correct tree level, and making the bookmark sorting simpler and easier.

Finally, after enjoying Firefox 3 and its new features for a few hours, I have to admit that I have fallen in love again for the navigator that changed my Internet surfing style. This last version is not only safer and lighter, but it also makes a better use of the options and the tools that it has, making it a useful and more productive browser. Firefox 3 is a great option if you are tired of your old browser.

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 today with some interesting features. While IE still has a majority of the browser market share, it's unlikely that too many hardcore Firefox, Safari or Chrome (even with the extension capability) are going to be switching any time soon. Even so, IE users will appreciate the new features. Let's take a closer look as some are immensely important to Web professionals:

Accelerators let users speed up their routine tasks; map directions, translate words, email friends and more. By the looks of it (with accelerators like "Blog with Windows Live Spaces") Microsoft is taking its current position in the browser market to better compete in markets where it's services have been slow to take off. Check out the Web Slices feature below for how this might related to Web professionals.

InPrivate Browsing enables IE8 users to browse the Web without saving their history - this might be a popular feature for those on shared computers worried about the availability of browing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, usernames, passwords etc. InPrivate filtering, a feature of the former, provides users with another level of control and choice about the inforamtion that other website can use to track their browsing activity. The impact on behavioral advertising (or any advertising really) is going to be major if users use the feature.

Web Slices is perhaps the most noteworthy addition in IE8. The feature enables user to keep track of their favorite content from the new Favorite Bar in IE8. Just like Accelerators, Micorosft has taken a "platform-based approach" to Web Slices, enabling developers to create individual slices by simply adding a few lines of code to existing pages. When users hover their mouse over an item on a webpage that is Web sliced, an icon will appear notifying users can add the slice.

Will this change your perception of IE8? Regardless of the answer, Web professionals should pay close attention to the conversations surrounding accelerators and slices - it's incredibly important news for both Web marketers, designers and developers.