I'm again at a point of decision on this browser choice, so I thought I'd see how folks here were seeing it.

There have been recent news items on switching away from Internet Explorer, given the ongoing security concerns that come up.

Most browsers have many similar features so it's very much a personal decision. About 4 weeks ago, I decided to move to Opera 7.5 (and now upgraded to 7.52) and have not regretted the choice. I really like the ability to see all the open windows with tabs and can easily switch between windows. If it hadn't been Opera it would have been Mozilla Firefox for me.

Since there is no Google toolbar for Opera, I still was using IE for checking Google PageRanks with the Toolbar.

Now this morning, I note that Firefox has a small extension that can show the Google PageRank for each web page that is visited.

So should I or shouldn't I switch? I'm just at a tipping point on this.

Have you tipped? :)

I use three different browsers:

Opera 7.2 & Opera 7.51 - Opera is without a doubt my favorite browser and has been for years. Here's why:

- Speed, speed, speed: Opera loads pages so much faster than Explorer and it isn't the resource hog that Explorer is. This is really apparent if you are running an older machine with limited resources.

- Tabs: I love the tabs that allow me to have multiple web pages loaded within one program. When I scan news (in addition to an rss reader), I'll launch 30 pages at once and quickly cruise through the sites. Imagine the mess on your desktop trying to have 30 Explorer windows open at once!

- Mouse gestures: This allows you to perform actions using little movements of the mouse. For example, if I want to go back a page I just hold the right mouse button down and slightly move the mouse to the left. To go forward, same thing but move the mouse to the right. There are others and this really does speed up my work.

- Quick preferences: It's so easy to turn off Javascript, turn off cookies, block pop ups, and so much more.

About the only thing I can think of that Explorer has that Opera doesn't is the Google toolbar. Opera still has a search bar that allows you to search using Google or a variety of other search engines, it just doesn't show PageRank.


NetCaptor - I continue to use this (perhaps out of habit) because it also has tabs and is a decent alternative to Explorer. The problem is that NetCaptor is based on Explorer code (if I understand correctly) and is susceptible to Explorer security risks. I only use NetCaptor for opening admin panels for my sites and I don't use it for general browsing.


Explorer - I keep this around so I can check the look of my sites in different browsers. Also, if I want to see the Google toolbar PageRank, I know it's there.


Firefox - I haven't used this one but I've been hearing loads of good things about it. Perhaps I'll check it out and it will be my replacement for NetCaptor.


Oh, in case anyone is wondering, I like to use different browsers at once to organize my work...

- Opera 7.2 is on one monitor and used for my daily news hunt and for general browsing.

- NetCaptor is on the same monitor and has all of my admin panels open so I can work on the "guts" of my sites.

- Opera 7.51 is on my second monitor and is used to monitor the forum and also for general browsing.

- If opened, Explorer will also be on the second monitor.

There's a great argument, Robert, to use with my wife re the second monitor. I'm gradually building up my case. :)

Husbands have to stick together in our quest for toys - ahem - I mean essential work tools. ;)

Still not sorted that yet Barry? Jeez, your wife must be one tough nut to crack, hehehe.

As most web designers, I use many browsers (mainly to check work) but I find that lately I'm using Avant Browser (http://www.avantbrowser.com) more than most for general browsing. It uses the Explorer engine and is built with MDI (Multiple-Document-Interface) technology, so all the aspects of IE are present plus a few more improvements seemingly taken from Opera...

Tabbed browsing for multiple pages.
Nine mouse gestures for faster browsing (as Robert said, very useful).
Blockers ... ads, pop-ups, activeX, sounds, javascript, flash etc.
Multiple home pages ... have multiple pages open on start-up.
Integrated, customisable search engine (choose the engine you want to use).
Assign URL aliases (type 'sbb' and it takes you to smallbusinessbrief.com etc).
Google Toolbar can be used (unless you are using Win 98 or ME).
Hide in the system tray with just a click.
Support for the RoboForm plugin (another great time saver).
Use different skins (for what it's worth)



...and it's free (and not adware!).


Screenshot (http://www.avantbrowser.com/images/sc.jpg)

I have jumped the IE ship and am now using Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/). So far the browsing experience has been excellent.

I've never given it much thought, really. I don't care for the security risks with most MS products, but for some reason just never thought to get another browser. Probably my bad experience with trying to find an alternative to OE years ago. What a mess that was!

Just out of curiosity, I pulled up the stats for one of my sites and found people using these browsers (in order starting with most popular):

IE (of course)
Netscape
Safari
Mozilla
Opera
Konqueror
Acrobat (Must have been coming in from a .pdf??)
Others

This is an interesting article about the browser market:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1260994,00.html

Snippet:
For the first time Internet Explorer has lost a tiny bit of market share. Ben Hammersley believes this small change may signify large challenges ahead for Microsoft

That's very thought provoking.

It seems to show that in 35 days the non-IE share of the market has gone from 4.27% to 5.27%. That's a 23% change in 35 days. If this continued on an exponential basis as growth curves often do, you could see the non-IE share of the browser market at 33% in one year's time.

You heard it here first folks. :D

As a developer, I need to use several browsers for checking work (as do many of you). My favorite "usual" browser is a version of the Gecko engine I messed around with when they started releasing the source code. (How geeky is that?!) I rearranged the layout, customized the buttons and such. Not good reasons to favor it, but it makes me feel good to use it. I disabled everything fancy for speed and safety, and as my "usual" surfing is for info only and not for games or shopping, it does just fine for me. (I'm using IE6 for this posting.)

Anyway, I'm currently using IE4, IE5, IE6 (on different machines), Konqueror, Lynx (text-only), Netscape 4.78/7.1, Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera 6/7. I don't own a Mac or I'd be using Safari, too. (I ask friends if I can check my work on their systems...and end up staying for dinner!)

I second the kudos given to both Firefox and Opera by all y'all above. I must use IE to access our Overture accounts, as the reports they generate do not transfer correctly in any other browser, it seems.

I would comment on the Guardian essay, but I just got off a three-day binge batting its concepts around at WebmasterWorld. WOW am I glad that thread is finished! (Okay...yes, Open Standards are a huge threat to the proprietary world of Microsoft. And thank goodness for that! Go Open Source/Standards!)

... IE4, IE5, IE6 (on different machines), Konqueror, Lynx (text-only), Netscape 4.78/7.1, Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera 6/7. I don't own a Mac or I'd be using Safari, too. (I ask friends if I can check my work on their systems...and end up staying for dinner!)...

With regard to viewing your site in Safari, try iCapture (http://www.danvine.com/icapture/) (although it won't cook you dinner ;))

You also mentioned Lynx, I'm not sure how many people are aware of this browser but it is a very good tool for checking how a search engine views your web page as it is a text-only browser. If you don't want to download and install Lynx there is also an online 'viewer', like iCapture, and it is an invaluable tool for optimisation ... Lynx Viewer (http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html)

:D

Thanks for the pseudo-Safari link, UKdude! It's pretty close to what I've seen on my friends Macs (I will miss the dinners.) :(

For those wishing to see alternate displays of their websites that are closer to search engine spider views than you would normally see, I also recommend using your normal browser with images and Javascript turned off.

Of course, this doesn't take into account the META tags, re: keyword saturation and such, however it does give an interesting view of the site and its layout that is very useful for tweaking your tables and the text you use for your links and IMG tag ALT attributes.

PS: When at work I seem to be using MSIE more often than not because of the demands of the sites we use for keyword management (OVT,GGL). At home, I have been using primarily Firefox in its Win and Linux forms...because I like it. I was using Opera mostly at home, but FF has taken over. I also enjoy the Thunderbird Mail and News client.

Opera for surfing and working; Mozilla, IE6, others for testing.

Interestingly for those of you who have been around for awhile, the incredible predominance of IE use is lessening; both Upsdell.com and w3schools are showing an increase in use of other browsers:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
http://upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat_trends.htm

So that's 85% IE users, down from 94+%, and less any Opera users who've set their browsers to identify as IE/Mozilla, etc. Glad I never went the "design for IE" route ... and hoping some of the folks who *have* will see the light. I am darned tired of visiting sites that insist that I switch browsers.

Heck, what do they care what browser I use? Do they want me to buy something or not?

Now, thought I'm an Opera user, my network security guy sent me this link discussing an apparent security hole in the Opera 7+:
http://www.greymagic.com/security/advisories/gm008-op/

Do they want me to buy something or not?

Excellent point!

I tell students, "Do you know any business owner that would intentionally bar 10% of their potential customers from getting into the store by making the door too narrow because they were too lazy to make it wide enough for every customer?"

Cross-browser compatibility is critical to the success of most sites. Those that don't bother...don't bother.

I haven't used Avant Browser yet, but from the details theUKdude provided and from looking at their site, it looks like a good project for Saturday morning play time.

If you or anyone you know has paid for Avant Browser, then I'm afraid you have been ripped off. Avant is free ... there is no version that you are required to pay for.

However, they do accept donations.

I tend to use Internet Explorer half the time, and FireFox the other half.

I really hadn't looked at Avant before.

This is from their FAQ (http://www.avantbrowser.com/faq.html):

What is Avant Browser?

Avant Browser can be best described as a custom web browser application. Avant Browser is a standalone application designed to expand services provided by Microsoft Internet Explorer.

So, it looks like it's not so much an independent browser as it is an addon to Internet Explorer.

I might give it a try on one of the machines at the office. But I think that firefox does most of the things that Avant seems to add to Internet Explorer. It's probably worth looking at though.

The new service pack for Windows XP includes some changes to Internet Explorer. The team that works on it for Microsoft have a blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie) where they discuss topics related to the browser.

If you update to Microsoft SP service pack, keep in mind that the update might harm your use of the browser addon.

Looking through their "what's new" page and their forum, it does look like they stay on top of issues involving their browser.

I suspect that if there are any problems with the new service pack, they'll work to resolve it pretty quickly.

I think the reason why I stick with Internet Explorer half the time is that I really like the toolbar from these folks, which only runs on IE:

http://www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/toolbar/documentation_v2en.html

It has so many great tools built into it, that I'd really miss it if I couldn't use it anymore.

You don't need to let your choice of toolbar force your choice of browser. I use two deskbars, the Google Deskbar (http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/) and the Hotbot Deskbar (http://www.hotbot.com/tools/). They both give lots of features and they work with any browser.

I also can check the Google PageRank in the Mozilla Firefox browser if I think that important. You can find that via the mozdev.org (http://pagerankstatus.mozdev.org/) web page.

If it were just pagerank and search that I was concerned about Barry, then I'd be quick to agree with you. The Web accessibility toolbar I'm using only works in Internet Explorer though.

The closest I've found that will run in mozilla/firefox is this one:

http://www.chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/

But it doesn't have all of the accessibility features.

Keep your eye on this (http://waizilla.mozdev.org/) site Bragadocchio ;)

The WaiZilla project...

Looks good UKdude

Thanks!

I have used Firefox and must say I am realy impressed with it. I will finally abandon the IE for good :)