I have received emails over the past weeks about which browser should the average user use, what browser do I use, which is fastest, etc?  I don’t know where all of this sudden interest in browsers came from but maybe it has something to do with the new Windows 7 operating system release.  Although, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that is about all I can come up with.

Many of the questions concern Google Chrome’s quickness.  I realized when gathering facts for this column that Google Chrome has been out a little over a year so maybe that generated some interest.

I have checked on several reputable websites that gather statistical information.  I found that basically the most well-liked browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (65%), Firefox (25%), Safari (3.7%), Google Chrome (3.2%), Opera (1.5%) and last place to all the others with less than 1%.  The percentages vary per “reputable” website but the order is pretty standard.  I have sort of blended many of the percentages since most of them disagreed slightly.

Since the column this week is mostly about Google Chrome I will say that I found its percentage varied from four to seven percent.  It doesn’t sound very accurate; however, I think it indicates a fair ranking order.

I believe that GC is fast, very fast starting up and then opening websites. However, that speed comes with one caveat.  GC doesn’t have as many extra features as MSIE and Firefox.  Those two are slower to respond but they do many things and work with some sites better than GC.  I can’t comment on Safari and Opera since I gave up on them long ago but I am sure they have fans that truly love them.

Chrome’s layout with the tabs at the very top of the window is very nice, I’m not sure why but it just works well. Also, it is a clean browser, very uncluttered, and similar to the Google search screen.

An unseen feature — each tab is engineered to act as a separate browser window.  This is a neat feature which doesn’t allow a crashed site you are viewing to affect all the other tabs.  Only the “bad” tab shuts down unlike other browsers who totally collapse.

For something different with Chrome try “Create application shortcut…“  This makes a website look like a windows application.  I use it with Pandora.com which is a free music site — I suggest you review it on your own.

They are all free so my suggestion is to use the one you like best.  Download all and try them out.  Go to your favorite sites, do your favorite “things” online and find out which browser you are most comfortable with.  That is the browser that I think you should use.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 5:49 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.