Opinion: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari

This may sound crazy but I don’t think most people even know what a browser is... I talk to educated financial advisors all the time. Often I will ask them what browser they are using and they have no idea what I’m talking about. Let me explain:

The browser is the application in which you view the internet. Your internet service provider is the company that gets you connected to the internet. Your operating system is a set of drivers and applications that allows you to interact with your computer.

Every computer user should be able to answer the following questions. If you can’t answer these questions then you ought not be using a computer. In other words “slowly, step away from the computer...”

Questions:
• Who makes my computer? Mac, Dell, HP, Gateway, Sony or whatever
• What operating system am I running? Windows, Linux or Mac
• What version of my operating system am I running? Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP or Vista. Mac Leopard or Tiger or whatever.
• Who is my internet service provider? AOL, Cox, AT&T or whatever
• How fast am I connected to the internet? Very fast, fast or (like my parents) dial-up.
• What browser do I use? IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Opera or whatever

Maybe it’s just a guy thing. If you were to ask me point blank what kind of vehicle I drive I would be able to tell you the make, model, year, size of engine...

All of this brings me to my opinion on browsers. I have used many browsers in my life and no browser is completely perfect. There are many features I like in IE7 (internet explorer version 7) and Firefox. Google’s new browser Chrome looks great in Vista, I like the Google Gears functionality and the ability to create application shortcuts using Chrome. Chrome still isn’t quite there yet for me. Safari on my iPod Touch or on an iPhone is amazing but Safari on a PC and even on a Mac is a joke.

I still keep coming back to Firefox 3. Believe it or not the one thing that consistently keeps bringing me back to Firefox is the pull down folders. Let me try to explain... In Firefox I have a custom toolbar with all my shortcuts. I have my shortcuts in folders. When I click to open a folder on my toolbar it opens and then all the other folders will open as I move my mouse over them. This works just like menu items do. You click on File and it open then you move over to Edit and it opens automatically. In every other browser you have to click on the folder each time you want to see the bookmarks in the folder. I hope this makes sense. I know this is a small thing but it’s the small things that make all the difference.

Firefox has many can be customized with hundreds of themes and plug-in’s. I would caution anyone who is using themes and plug-ins to keep them to a minimum. The more of these you load into Firefox the more buggy it becomes.