Small business Web sites blog

Select your Web browser, top 5 countdown

If you are a Windows user and you click on the blue e to use the Internet then you’ll soon see the Select your Web Browser Ballot screen (if you haven’t already). Which browser should you choose? Here are my recommendations for most users in reverse order.

5th place: Windows Internet Explorer 8

If you are using an older version of Internet Explorer then the least you should do is get the latest version.

Internet Explorer though would always be my last choice for a browser.

The first reason is security. The French and German governments have recommended using an alternative browser due to security flaws in Internet Explorer. While IE8 is not affected by the latest flaw, it’s only a matter of time before the next security hole is found.

The second reason is speed. In performance tests, Internet Explorer 8 is the slowest of the major browsers by a significant margin.

The final reason that I would avoid Internet Explorer is that it doesn’t support the latest standards. Many Web sites use style sheets to add effects like rounded corners, drop shadows and transparency. However as Internet Explorer doesn’t support the standards you’ll never see how much better the Web could look.

4th Place: Opera browser

Opera has great potential, it’s got a good reputation for security and it has very good (in fact possibly the best) support for Web standards.

So why does Opera come 4th?

Firstly Opera is the second slowest browser after Internet Explorer.

The other problem with Opera though is the relatively small number of users (about 2% in February 2010). This means that many Web designers don’t bother testing sites in Opera and so there are sometimes display problems and even problems using sites at all.

3rd Place: Safari

So now we reach the final 3.

Safari (by Apple) is a good browser. Safari is secure, it’s joint second with Firefox for speed and has good support for Web standards.

However Safari uses the same engine for displaying pages that Chrome does, so they are very similar. However Chrome wins out as it is significantly faster.

That leaves us with the final 2.

2nd Place: Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is the most used browser (about 30%, in February 2010) after Internet Explorer (about 55%, in February 2010).

Firefox is a secure, fast (joint second with Safari) browser with great Web standards support and has a huge number of add-ons available. So why is Firefox second?

While the add-ons provide extra features, they also slow down performance. If there is a particular add-on that you will find really useful then Firefox may be the best browser for you. However for most users you’ll probably either never use the add-ons or you’ll download loads of exciting sounding add-ons. You’ll probably forget about most of the add-ons you install and never use them, but wonder why Firefox has become so slow.

1st Place: Google Chrome

So that leaves us with Google Chrome as the winner.

For most users, Chrome is the best browser because it’s secure, fast and supports the latest standards.

Chrome is the most basic browser, which is what makes it fast. The streamline approach affects the whole interface so more of your screen is used for actual Web pages instead of menus and buttons.

What do you think?

So what do you think, which browser would you recommend? It would be great to hear your thoughts and opinions.

---

Tags: CSS, Web standards

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 2:36 pm and is filed under News.