Browsers

Browsers move you from page to page on the internet. All versions of Windows come with Internet Explorer, the Microsoft Windows browser. In some cases you may have an adapted version that was customized by your ISP. You may choose to have other browsers, as well.

Reasons people may choose to use another (or more than one) browser:

1. Problems—error messages advising that the browser must close, or browser hangs-up / is slow.

2. Some pages don’t display correctly.

3. A preference for features that other browsers provide.

Until or unless you change it, your browser will open to a preset portal as your home page (sometimes called your start page) when you click the icon that you use to go to the internet. Typically, we’ve always been able to do at least some customizing of a portal, but now you can create a truly custom home page entirely free of any “pre-canned” content.

Today we will have a look at 5 of the most well known browsers. All five have these features in common: Tabbed browsing (which allows you to open more than one website in the same browser window), an integrated search engine, bookmarks, automated updates, RSS feeds, some form of a smart toolbar (based on your browsing history), online help, a pop-up blocker, anti-sypware, and anti-virus protection for downloads.

Noted below are some features that are NOT shared by all 5 of these browsers. I’m listing the browsers in the order of my own browser preferences.

FIREFOX – 60,000 add-ons available, voice commands, mouse gestures (certain mouse movements that represent commands), spell checker, 35,000 themes w/mouse-over to preview, incognito mode, automatic session restore, help via live chat w/Firefox community (as well as several other help options), Persona Plus—a download that allows you to create your own theme, drag & drop to search bar. Accepts Google&Yahoo toolbars, among others.

SAFARI—No longer just for Macintosh! Has 3 types of Snapback—(to orig. search page, to a 1^st website visited in address bar, or set to snapback to any page), resizable text boxes, spell checker, choice of Google or Yahoo as integrated search engine, Top Sites—view thumbnails of every website you add to the page. Doing this, you can create a truly customized portal with no need to accept any pre-set featured sites or widget content—and you’re not limited to sites that have an RSS feed. To set up a custom Top Sites page: With Top Sites page on screen…

Click gear icon on top right, click Preferences on drop-down menu, on General tab choose “set to current page” beneath Home Page slot. To add your pages, paste URL in address bar & bring up page. Click + to the left of the address bar. In the pop-up dialog box, w/Top Sites showing in the drop-down menu, click Add. To see your creation, click the Top Sites icon that looks like a black checkerboard on the left of the bookmarks bar. To edit the page use “edit” at the bottom left on the page. Hint: If you go to Help, “Viewing & customizing Top Sites” is immediately in plain view on the top right of the initial Help page.

INTERNET EXPLORER—sync tool, telephone support, parental controls, compatibility view to correct display problems, incognito mode, accepts Google & Yahoo toolbars.

GOOGLE CHROME—task manager (users can see which websites & apps are running and how much memory they’re using), desktop shortcuts, incognito mode, drag & drop to search bar, active user’s group, tons of themes available—2^nd only to Firefox in number of themes to choose from, allows creation of customized portal with no pre-set content as long as the site you want to add has an RSS feed. Google Chrome does not accept the Google toolbar and apparently you cannot sync bookmarks between the two!!!

OPERA—voice commands, sync bookmarks with mobile phone, mouse gestures, widgets, spell checker, “glass” (see-through) skin available. Note: I didn’t find Opera to be user friendly—it wasn’t intuitive to set up.

--Ann Finley, March 2010