What's your browser when you get on the online?

Some time ago there were two options for internet browsing: Internet Explorer, and Netscape Navigator. That's oversimplifying, of course -- there have been many browser options for a long time -- but it's worth noting that now, more than ever, there are several legitimate contenders to choose from.

After a particularly frustrating upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, I found myself unsatisfied and looked online for other options. Of course, the first place one might turn is probably to FireFox. FireFox users are a fervent bunch and I had met several who endlessly spread the FireFox gospel.

Instead, I decided to try Opera. Opera worked fine and was less troublesome than the pre-release (in fairness to Microsoft) version of IE7 I had been using. I did find a couple of websites that didn't support Opera for advanced functionality, but for the most part it was fine.

Eventually, I decided to move on to FireFox to see what all the commotion was about. FireFox was a lot like Opera, at least in terms of appearance. FireFox does seem to offer infinitely more customizations online from other users with no apparent limits. FireFox is also better supported than Opera -- surely due to its higher popularity. (It's recently been shown that FireFox is now more popular than any other browser version -- if you count all versions of FireFox as one. That is to say FireFox has something like 22 percent of the browser market, IE6, IE7, and IE8 each have somewhere around 20 percent, and Google Chrome and Safari pick up most of the rest.) I was satisfied that FireFox would be more stable than my sketchy IE7 install and better supported than Opera, but decided to seek more information.

Just about that time, the Google Chrome browser became available. I downloaded it and have been using it ever since (probably 6 months or so now, I don't recall when I first got it). Is Chrome better than FireFox? Yes and no, in my opinion. I know there are many skins available for FireFox, so perhaps my first point is invalid -- but I really prefer the interface of Chrome over FireFox. There is no menu bar so the website tabs appear at the very top of the screen. Also, there is no favorites bar -- it's integrated into the address/search bar. Furthermore, there's no search box. I think IE, FireFox, and maybe Opera have integrated search capability into the address box, but I think Chrome does it better than the rest.

I think Chrome is the easiest to use and, in my experience, the most user-friendly. It remembers pages you have visited and searches you have performed and easily takes you back should you wish to return later.

While it is my favorite, Chrome isn't for everyone, of course. It is still not supported on some pages. It's also not pre-loaded on most machines -- many people are completely happy with IE (version 8 is better than 7) and it wouldn't make much sense for them to switch. On the other hand, Chrome doesn't offer the flexibility and customization that FireFox does. If you're an über l337 h4x0r...FireFox is probably still the browser for you (if you haven't made your own, that is).

I'm not going to comment on Safari for PCs... I've used iTunes and that was more than enough Apple for me.