Browsers: Beyond IE and Firefox

Mention "browser," and almost certainly Internet Explorer and Firefox will be up for discussion, and with good reason. Together, those two browsers have about 95 percent of the market, with Internet Explorer accounting for the lion's share of that, according to December stats compiled by Web-based applications vendor Net Applications.

But they're not the only browsers around. There are plenty of others, including those aimed at mobile users. Each commands just a miniscule portion of the Internet audience, but some deserve many more eyeballs thanks to innovative features or for other reasons. For instance, because Microsoft discontinued Mac support for Internet Explorer, users on that platform will want to investigate other options.

We looked at a few of the lesser known--or, in the case of Netscape, less-well-used--offerings out there: Opera 8.51, Netscape 8.0.4, Flock 0.4.10 and Safari 2.0.2. Each brings a unique flavor to its Web display. We tested them on either Windows XP Professional or Mac OS X 10.4 or both. Opera and Flock are available for Windows and OS X as well as Linux, but Netscape is available only for Windows (as of version 8) and Safari is available only for Mac OS X. If you want to browse the Web your way, you might want to look into one of these options.

Flock is a new entrant to the market, currently available only as a developer preview. A free open-source offering, Flock has been described as a "social browser," because it was designed to make it simple for anyone to contribute to the Web.You may quibble with the nomenclature, but the idea is sound: Flock integrates with services such as blogging tools, photography sites and other content-based Web sites. Since Flock is under development, the only integrated services are the Flickr photo-sharing service and the bookmark manager, del.icio.us, but more are planned.

Flock is based on the Mozilla code base, which is also the underpinning of the Firefox browser, so it's a powerful and simple infrastructure to build upon. All the basic features and keyboard shortcuts you know from Firefox are included. The most interesting addition as of this writing is the del.icio.us integration. You can access and update your bookmarks from anywhere in the world as well as search for other people's bookmarks--there's the social dimension--on similar topics. There's no slowdown loading the bookmarks from the service.

Flock performed just as well as Firefox for general Web browsing. The integration with Flickr and del.icio.us is seamless, and we look forward to seeing what additions Flock makes in the future, when it's released. A free developer preview can be downloaded at www.flock.com.

Where would we be without Netscape Communications Corp.'s browser? It owned--in fact, made--the market until Internet Explorer showed up in 1998, at which time Netscape decided to make its effort open source under a project called Mozilla. The Netscape browser lost traction, though, because early releases based on immature Mozilla code were flops. Releases improved as Mozilla matured, and its latest offering is based on the most recent Firefox software from Mozilla. But is there really any reason to go back?

Maybe. Netscape's version 8.0 was a rather poor showing. By using a slightly older version of Mozilla code as the base, many security holes were left open. Updates have solved these problems. The latest version, 8.0.4, is solid, with new options such as a Multibar, which lets you create up to 10 custom toolbars and switch among them. You can set up one toolbar for work, one for home or one for each person who uses a particular computer. Another great feature is the Live Content boxes. Besides allowing you to add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to your toolbar, you can add applet-like tabs that present news, weather and other content without opening extra windows or tabs.The most interesting feature that Netscape has is the ability to switch engines on the fly. You can choose between viewing a page with Firefox or Internet Explorer when a Web site requires one of them (still a common occurrence). A small icon in the corner of the browser's window marks the switch. Netscape is free and downloadable at browser.netscape.com.

Opera, another free browser, has become known for its many innovations. Opera Software ASA pioneered the use of tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking, now commonplace in practically every browser. The pioneering continues with new features such as voice support. Not only can the browser understand spoken commands, but it will read Web sites to you as requested. Other software can read Web screens to you, but Opera is the first to incorporate this as a feature within the browser, simplifying the setup for users.

Opera's basic idea is to be small, fast and user friendly. We didn't conduct formal performance tests, but we noted that, while all the browsers loaded Web sites and generally ran very quickly, Opera has a slight edge on the competition--for now. As for being easy to use, it allows you to customize everything, down to the layout of the buttons.

The most impressive feature: conformance with Web standards. The latest release from Opera includes full support for XHTML 1.1, CSS 2.1 and even SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) 1.1 Tiny. Opera has a history of implementing Web standards before other browsers, which makes it an ideal platform for Web development. It's free and downloadable at www.opera.com.

Apple Computer, which ships and seamlessly integrates its Safari browser into Mac OS X, takes the best features from other browsers, such as pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing, and combines them with its desktop interface to create an amazingly simple browsing experience.In the latest release, Apple has integrated a terrific RSS reader into Safari, which, like the vendor's other applications, has a clean look and feel and is intuitive to use. Other browsers allow you to treat an RSS feed as a bookmark but don't present the feed as more than a series of titles. With Safari, you can see the article title, the date it was posted and a description or summary of the article. Safari also lets you hide the summary, in case you just want to check out headlines.

Another Safari feature that's a keeper is called Private Browsing--enabling it means the browser won't record any history or cache any data about where you are browsing. If you want to check your bank account on a computer other than your own, this makes sure that the next surfer won't be able to take a peek at your account balance or even find out what bank you use. Only the Web sites that are bookmarked are visible to users, unless an administrator disables the controls. In addition to Private Browsing, Safari has built-in parental controls. As with other Mac products, these features are easy to use and powerful. Safari is only available with Mac OS X.

No one will ever deny that Internet Explorer and Firefox are great browsers. Since they aim to please everyone, however, they lack some of the new and interesting features like voice commands, text to voice and distributed bookmarking. If you want to browse the Web your way, look into a smaller browser that provides features that fit your needs.