Google Chrome
Pros:It’s been called minimalist, and it’s not hard to see why. Chrome features a very clean design and works to maximize your screen real estate. The OmniBar acts as both an address bar and a search bar, potentially saving you precious clicks. Chrome uses independent tab management, meaning that each tab is its own process, and the result is that if one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn’t go down. In what might be the most important stat, it’s also the fastest of the three at loading webpages.
Cons:The only stat that kept us from calling the last one the most important hands down happens to be the one Chrome fares worst in – extensions. There are, oh, just about NONE, although in theory some will be developed eventually. One example of how the lack of extensions hurts Chrome is that its native rss handling leaves something to be desired, but unlike the other two browsers there’s no easy plug-in, add-on or extension to solve the problem. Yet. (If you’re looking for something else to complain about, don’t forget that Chrome’s data collection sends your info into the deep, dark depths of Google’s datavault.
Pros: Here, extensions are king. There are probably more extras for Firefox than you can count, and they’ve been developed and refined over the course of many years. Really, seriously, the browser was designed for this, and along with tabbed browsing, extensions are Firefox’s gift to the browsing world. Firefox also loads up webpages at a good clip, but if it’s not quite as fast as Chrome we’ll still call load time a pro since starting with version 3.1 they’ll be using a new JavaScript engine (Tracemonkey) that is actually much faster than Chrome’s (V8), which should help balance things.
Cons: The address bar and search bar are separate with Firefox, potentially adding clicks, as Firefox’s address bar has only a word-wheeling history searcher (Chrome and IE present internet search options as well). Firefox also eats up more of your memory and takes longer to load than Chrome, although it still beats IE by a good margin. As far as stability, Firefox uses group tab handling, which means if one tab goes down they all go down. There is also no way to browse privately, which Chrome (Incognito) and IE (InPrivate) both can do easily.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (Beta)
Pros: It seems like ever since Firefox emerged as a legitimate challenger to Internet Explorer, the browser has been playing catchup. One way in which it has caught up quite a bit is with extensions, and there is now a large gallery of choices for IE users to pick from. The address bar is like Chrome’s, but there is still a separate search bar too if that’s somehow easier for you. Unfortunately it defeats the purpose of saving real estate for other things, but maybe it’ll still save you a click and at least it won’t frighten you with change. As always, the biggest pro with IE is that the vast majority of web users browse with it, which means designers and developers will cater heavily to it.
Cons: IE absolutely devours your memory compared to Firefox or Chrome, and is slower to load pages too. On a fast machine the difference is small, but in particular on older machines the contrast shows. We mentioned the address bar as a loose pro, and to balance it out we’ll mention the tab architecture as a loose con. IE uses a degree of individual tab handling, but manages to retain enough overlap that if there is a crash on one tab the whole browser could still be threatened.
Conclusion:
On a fast machine in ideal conditions all three browsers work well, but there is a clear divide between these browsers in terms of focus. Chrome is ideal for light tasks, with a clean and simple interface and a better speed for booting up and loading webpages. Firefox is ideal for more complex tasks, sacrificing a little speed to be able to handle extensions and working better with JavaScript. Internet Explorer, although much improved, is still just for the multitudes either not savvy enough or unable to change their browser, as it is equal in the best circumstances and inferior in all the others. In the end, you just need to decide which pros are best for you.
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