The program used to view web sites on the internet is called a web browser. Not many people know that there is actually a choice of web browsers available to them. They don’t know this because they generally buy a PC with a browser preloaded on it, or if they load a new operating system, it too pre-loads a browser. As the biggest selling operating system is still Microsoft Windows you will not therefore be surprised to know that the browser most commonly preloaded is called Microsoft Internet Explorer (or IE).
The other popular browsers available for PC users are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox & Opera (Norwegian software company). Apple also has their own browser called Safari which is used for their Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.
Now we’ve all seen historically that the ‘most used’ isn’t necessarily the best. Beta Max vs VHS is just one example. It’s all down to marketing in the end and if you supply operating systems to a huge proportion of all the PC’s that are sold in the world; why not promote your own software within it. Great marketing ploy Microsoft!
So basically, a browser loads up a website and translates it from computer code to something legible by humans in the form of text & images. So a poor browser is a poor translator. A good browser is a good translator. Unfortunately IE is a poor translator. Why? Because Microsoft keep changing the goal posts as to what code (language) it accepts, which causes untold headaches among the poor web designers around the world to try and keep up!
Not keeping up with IE, or not checking the compatibility, results in misinterpretation of code which makes websites appear a bit weird, askew or difficult to read. Even certain buttons or functions may fail to work. This is down to IE not translating properly.
IE is a lot slower to decipher websites too. This could be due to all the slow safety checking processes or just poorly designed software, who knows.
Lately the IE phenomenon is being challenged by a browser called Chrome which is owned by Google. They have the lion’s share of the Search Engine programs used around the world so it would make sense to create a program that reads & translates the pages that you view.
It’s faster and appears to be able to decipher any code easily. It also has a lot of extra features to make your browsing experience much easier.
I write code for this website and I use Chrome as the initial view for my results. Any changes I make always appear correctly on Chrome as I would expect to see. Often when I go to view my changes on IE, I have to tweak my changes again to get make them work because the results are NOT what I expected to see!
So I am recommending people change from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome!
So why should you use Google Chrome? Here are some of my reasons;
- Speed – Chrome is designed to be fast in every possible way. It’s quick to start up from your desktop, loads web pages in a snap, and runs complex web applications lightning fast
- Simplicity – Chrome’s browser window is streamlined, clean and simple, and has features that are designed for efficiency and ease of use
- Security – Chrome is designed to keep you safer and more secure on the web with built-in malware and phishing protection, auto updates to make sure you have all the latest security fixes, and more
- Translator – Chrome is the first browser to incorporate machine translation in the browser itself, without requiring additional plug-ins or extensions
- Searches – Use their Omnibox to type both web addresses and searches in Chrome.
- New Tab page – When you open a new tab, the sites you visit most often are shown on screen
- Chrome is built for stability. If an individual tab freezes or crashes, the other tabs are unaffected. You can also arrange your tabs however you wish – quickly and easily
- Bookmarks – Use the Bookmarks Bar to add your favourite pages so you can quickly & easily access them at the top of every page without having to look in your Favourites folder
You can download all Web Browsing software free of charge from the internet. You can actually have all of them loaded onto your computer if you want and you can pick and choose which ones you like and want to use. It’s just the same as downloading and using any other program.
Google Chrome can be downloaded free from here; http://www.google.co.uk/chrome
(One example of not being able to move away entirely from IE is that a few stubborn companies will insist you only use IE for their website, this is especially so for some business related users. By selecting only one browser these companies avoid the browser compatibility headaches when they want to develop or make changes to their web site so you can see why they do it)