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Do we Really Have a Choice in Web Browser?

By Alan Hamlyn ⋅ August 5, 2008 ⋅ Print This Post Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

I think this is a really intersting topic to cover - so lets look at the most popular browsers in order.

1. Internet Explorer.

2. Firefox

3. Safari

Now I could go further, but as you do it ends up with just some person’s dog using that particular browser.

Now the reason I cover this article is because I’m looking at the hard facts in user behaviour and statistics kindly provided by w3c, and to be honest they do surprise me somewhat. Lets look at the reason why. Well we know our average users don’t really know how to use their computers, most will browse the internet, read email, and write that pointless letter to someone who actually reads snail mail, but, how many users do you know would be able to successfully install a new web browser and use it as their main browser permantley. Well the first thing for me is to look at the 2 largest groups of users, business & silver surfer (older generation). Now due to business’s not really wanting to roll out firefox or any other browser on all their systems, I find that unlikely, so surely they are internet explorer users. Next is the golden oldies, now come on, how many of those would be able to do it? Not many in my opinion.

The next hard facts are, 7 in 10 computers have windows XP, and then you’re going to get vista being the next top OS - what browser comes pre-intalled? Internet explorer of course. Then theres the whole thing of internet explorer being bundled with windows updates, and other software. So you can hardly escape it.

So why is Firefox 41%. I know it still isn’t as much as IE, but I never would have thought it would get that far. It even makes me doubt the w3c statistics.

So when it comes to choice, we can use any internet browser as long as its IE…

So anyway, lets look at the browsers, for me, the best browser is internet explorer 6, its reliable, tolerant, and simple. I do have the other browsers for website testing, but still IE6 is my choice until I find something better.

Internet explorer 7 is a rip off of firefox 2.0, with its tabs, and almost identical look. It can handle code a bit funny, especially with its zoom, and I hate using tabs, so I don’t like IE7, but for your average joe it is adequate.

Firefox is a free alternative, and is growing in popularity, although I find with firefox 3.0 it is a little bloated, resource hungry, but still I like the plugins you can get for it, and my second browser of choice.

Next is Safari - I honestly havent tested, but I hear it handles code similar to Firefox - since this is now for windows, I can see it increasing in popularity, perhaps near to Firefox.

I hope you enjoed this.

Thanks

Alan Hamlyn

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