What is your favorite web browser, and what makes it the best?

Well, my favorite is Flock. It’s somehow related to Firefox, but according to what I learned in another thread, not made by Mozilla. Before I used Flock, I was a Firefox fan. What I like about Flock is the social networking aspect. It keeps me logged in to my Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, my email… yeah, I love it.

i use fire fox most of the time and it works great but opera isn’t bad either and I use that too.

I use whatever is on this pc – the default – whatchamacallit?

I’ve been using Chrome since it came out, it’s only crashed twice…and I am the Queen of Tabbed Browsing. I use Firefox also, especially when something is not supported in Chrome yet.

Chrome is amazingly fast, the tabs are independent so if something causes one to freeze it doesn’t freeze all of your tabs and you can kill that one without losing everything else you’re doing. Unlike Firefox which will be slow, is a resource hog and if one tab breaks, they all do.

Those are my main two.

@Zen: PLEASE tell me that it’s not Internet Explorer. You’re asking to break your computer if you use that.

Yes, it is. Break?

DOWNLOAD THIS NOW.

IE, is far more susceptible to bad things on the internet. Just, never open it again.

@asmonet IE is the bane of the internet in my opinion, but some people have this bonding that they can’t get past and are afraid of new things.

FIREFUCKINFOX. <3

@asmonet, @siilver

Save IE 6!

I’ve found nothing that beats firefox yet. In bench-tests it is one of the speediest.. it has a nice, easy “add-on” method.. and it has crashed maybe twice the entire time I’ve used it.. whereas internet explorer is slow as a no-legged, dead dog… is vulnerable to a host of browser attacks.. and (at least for me) crashes way too often…

@NaturalMineralWater: Firefox is a bloated beast compared to Chrome, and have you seen the memory it devours? Sickening.

@NaturalMineralWater well i originally started off with Opera and now that is what chrome and firefox have mimicked. I like chrome because it is so compact and well, because i have always used Google and its already set up with them.

@phoenyx: lol4trl.

Love the tongue in cheek approach to that site.

@asmonet Was that virus? Shame on you. My internet explorer caught it just in time and deleted it.

Tsk, tsk.

It will be next time.

@asmonet Meanie.

@Zen you mean the link? no it was to the firefox site. other than that i don’t have a clue what you’re talking about lol

@asmonet Chrome crashed on install twice.. I never bothered with it past that. It could be the greatest since sliced bread.. I just haven’t “eaten” it yet.

@siilver JK. Should I really download it and Why? Nwever had trouble with Ex.

I currently use Chrome as my main browser, and Opera as my backup. Out of the mains, my list would look something like this: (1 being best)

1. Chrome
2. Opera
3. Firefox
4. Safari
5. Flock
6. IE

@Zen: It’s more vulnerable, it’s less reliable, and it’s suck. Take it from a computer nerd. Switch. Now.

@MrMontpetit: Switch Opera/Firefox, and I agree.

@Zen IE is known to crash often and have many bugs. Like i said earlier, some people just have built up a relationship with IE and don’t want to, or are afraid to change. I say stick to what you like, but don’t be afraid to try new things. Just get familiar with a browser before you send sensitive information over the web with it.

@siilver Cheers. (I’m afraid of change and IE hasn’t let me dow… -crash!)

@asmonet I like Opera better thank FF because it’s lighter, better tab system, more customizable (I’m not talking about the look/add-ons, just the features/behind the scenes stuff), and better pop-up blocker. FF just seems too bloated for me, even without extensions. Meh, to each his (or her) own!

At some point it comes down to personal preference too.. like chrome… sure maybe it uses less memory.. but will I ever really know it? Not really… it is negligible to me. That said.. I very well might like it better.. if the darn thing would install correctly.

I liked opera for a while but got turned off by stupid little things that just didn’t jive with me.. it happens.

Not to mention I’m a rebel at heart… and falling into the “let’s use everything made by google” idea doesn’t sit well with me.

Oops, another thing I forgot to mention about why I like Opera better than FF is because there are fewer security holes. There are very few in FF, but even fewer in Opera. The only reason I use Chrome as my main browser is just because it’s so simple, user friendly, light, fast, and just looks so damn good! :P

@MrMontpetit: I agree with you on all those points, but, I guess it’s just brand loyalty that would make me bump it up. Firefox was my first once I became a real nerd and grew up, you know? :)

I think I just missed the boat on Opera.

@asmonet you know the whole tabbed browsing and stuff originated with Opera. They have always had the customizable browser and have always made it easy to stop pop-ups, delete history/cookies, and managing bookmarks. As well as the whole, closing the browser and opening it back up where you left off.

@asmonet I see it’s English letters, but what does it all mean: “You know the whole tabbed browsing and stuff originated with Opera. They have always had the customizable browser and have always made it easy to stop pop-ups, delete history/cookies, and managing bookmarks. As well as the whole, closing the browser and opening it back up where you left off.”

@asmonet I think the same happened with me, I used to be a huge Mozilla fanboy, always talking about my new firefox add-ons and skins, always making sure I was up to date on the new extensions, but then I realized “Wait, for everything these extensions do, I already have separate Apps!” So I looked around for a lighter browser and decided to use Opera. Love the look at the time, and all of the behind the scenes customizations with the pop-up/ad/content blocker, the built in mail, the built in IRC and torrent client. (Though I hate the built in torrent client.) It just seemed to really catch my interest. Then I decided to run Chrome again after not using it for a like 5–6 months, and it realized I could do just do without those fancy features, and I’d rather have a light, simplistic browser.

@zen you know the little ”+” on IE to where you can have more than one web page going at once all within one window, that is tabbed browsing.

@Zen Opera was the 1st browser to start with tabs, as in multiple tabs in one window so you don’t have to have multiple windows open to be at more than one web page simultaneously. Also they introduced “session save”, where you can basically save your “session” which is what you currently have open, so when you open the browser next you can just pick up where you left off by setting it to open your last session automatically, or go through your saved sessions to find the one you wanted. It probably seems a bit confused to somebody just hearing about it now, but it’s not that complicated.

@MrMontpetit Thanks. I’m dizzy. But IE has tabs too I think? And seriously, never had a problem.

@Zen Yup I think all browsers have tabs and most have session saving now-a-days, Opera was just the one to introduce the concept and get started on it.

damn europeans

And if you just use it to casually browse the web, research, or check your e-mail. Don’t worry too much about it. The only thing I’d worry is that IE has the most security holes and flaws. Overall it’s not too bad, but I wouldn’t use it. :)

I just noticed, this sure is a hot topic at 4:30am EST!

I’m a night owl, and usually when I come to fluther at around this time it’s dead

@MrMontpetit it was my very first question on fluther i had to make it a good one!

@siilver Don’t mean to rain on your parade but I believe it’s been asked multiple times before. Still a very active question nonetheless!

@MrMontpetit no doubt. but it’s nice to hear peoples opinions. and sometimes you find out about new browsers, and like in Zen’s case, get people to broaden their knowledge of the internet!

@siilver: Yeah, I know. But hey, I can’t help what I found first. :)

Holy fuck, it’s 4:30?!

I SLEEP NOW.

I’ve been using Chrome on my little netbook while in Iraq, but use a Mac at home so it’s not an option there yet other than a buggy developer pre-release. On a netbook it is nice because of the limited system resources it uses and the limited “chrome” around the actual webpage. On a 1024×600 screen every pixel counts and Chrome is almost like having a full screen browser (it offers a full screen option as well).

Having every tab as a separate process is awesome and every other browser needs to adopt this as soon as possible. So many times Firefox has crashed and lost all of pages I had open, etc. The only time I miss Firefox or wish Chrome had a feature is for very few of the add-ons. Most of them are utter crap, but there are some that are useful and I find myself wishing they would work in Chrome. However Firefox seems to keep getting more and more bloated even without the add-ons and getting away from what it was known for originally as a light and fast browser. It’s a huge memory and resource hog and I find myself frequently restarting it just to free up the 700mb of RAM it has consumed.

Internet Explorer is indeed horrible. It is always the last to implement new features, it is buggy and insecure, missing features, doesn’t follow the web standards that every other browser supports which makes life hell for web designers, etc.

IE isn’t the only browser that exploits come through though, but it is definitely the least secure and easiest to exploit. Safari and Firefox were also used to take over a PC in a matter of seconds at a recent hacker competition. The only browser left standing was Chrome, thanks to its sandbox design where everything is contained in a little sandbox in memory and not allowed to access anything else.

On my Mac I have been using Omniweb for a long time which is built on the same rendering engine as Safari but adds on a lot of extra features like multiple “workspaces” for different tasks, thumbnail tabs, etc. However it hasn’t been updated in quite a while and the development seems almost dead on it. For a long time it was one of the only browsers you had to pay for, but at the time it was worth it.

When I get home to my Mac from Iraq I’ll likely use Safari 4 or Chrome if it is out yet. Camino is nice as well for basic browsing, it is much more “Mac-like” than Firefox on the Mac but only has the most basic features.

Shiira is also sexy but I just never took a liking to it for some reason. It has some innovative features as well like Tab Expose’.

“and falling into the “let’s use everything made by google” idea doesn’t sit well with me.”
There’s a reason people use a lot of Google’s products though, they are generally really good and nice to use. It’s not just brand loyalty.

I use Safari 4 as my main browser on my macbook, but only because it looks like chrome.

I never really got into firefox because I’m an add-on whore and I made the entire browser bloated and slow in a matter of hours. I then went to safari and just kept that because it just seems to fit well with the rest of my apps.

I do plan on jumping on chrome when it comes out, though. I use it on any PC that has it.

Hold on, I just remembered that Stainless is kind of a cool chrome clone for the mac. It’s still an early release, but it’s fun to play with.

I like Chrome and Safari. Internet Explorer? Blech

Firefox and Chrome, for me. Firefox will have to be my favorite because of my reliance on add-ons, especially Chinese Pera-kun and Rikaichan which allow me to hover over Chinese/Japanese characters and see the definition. Very handy for a student :]. If Chrome had my most frequently used add-ons, I’d probably switch over. It’s faster than Firefox, great interface, and I love how your most visited websites are listed when you open it.

Well, I’ll join the unpopular opinion here & say that I have IE & I love it. I’ve NEVER had it go down. This computer is 6 years old & it just keeps on ticking along. I will never change browsers, because I have no reason to.

I know I’ve seen this question on Fluther several times…

While i was on Ubuntu i used Firefox, but now that im back on XP i gave chrome a shot. I dont think ill be going back to Firefox. It just seems so much faster, and its also a LOT cleaner than any other browser ive used. Just got to wait a bit for add ons then it’ll be perfect.

@uberbatman I don’t even think I need any add-ons or Chrome, actually! Mainly because I have separate apps for everything I’d need an add-on to do. The only thing I’d like to see added is a better ad-blocker. But since Google makes a large sum of their money from their Ads, and most Ads are from Google, why would Google Chrome help block their own Ads?

@MrMontpetit because its open source?

Oh, and another I’d like to see be introduced into Google Chrome is some how connecting other Google services, mainly Mail and Reader.

Yea, i foresee a lot of possibilities with chrome. Its still young after all, give it a year or so and im sure it will be much better than we imagined.