Which Virtual Wave Will You Ride?
Improving Your Internet Browsing
NEIRAD enilno edition
Lots of people have computers, and most of those people use them to surf the web. The question is what internet browser is best for using the internet? Safari, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox are four options available today, and all of them have recently come out with updates for their browsers, but which one is beyond compare?
Safari is the standard Mac computer internet browser, with an easy to use interface and faster loading times. Sophomore Jon Nee says, “I have a PC but I downloaded Safari because Internet E xplorer just doesn’t work as well as Safari.” Safari is a great browser to use for standard internet surfing, because a recent study showed that Safari loads pages up to six times faster than Internet Explorer 7, and up to four times faster than Firefox 2. Safari 3 Increases picture quality on pages, increasing pixels and detail. Apple prides itself on creating an extremely easy to use browser, but it’s much more than that. Have you ever gone from page to page, drifting away from what you originally searched? Well instead of having to re-enter the URL, or continuously pressing the back button, you can use Safari’s new Snapback feature, which acts like a back button, but it returns you to your original search result.
Internet Explorer is the standard internet browser for all windows enabled PCs. Internet Explorer has been around the longest; it was released in August 1995. There have been many tweaks and tunings over its lifespan, and since October 2007, the seventh edition of Internet Explorer is available to the public. Internet Explorer 7 brought new features to the browser, including a new streamlined interface, RSS feeds, and page zoom. Another addition to the browser updated user security focused on preventing Internet Explorer users from phishing (an illegal process of attempting to acquire sensitive material) and malicious software, which can significantly slow down your computer. Sophomore Connor Beaumont said, “I use to use Internet Explorer as my browser, but when I got a new Macbook for Christmas, I made the switch over to Safari.
Mozilla Firefox is not the standard for any operating system, but many people download it as their primary internet browser. Mr. Otterspoor says, “As the school webmaster I am constantly testing code and Firefox has several useful add-ons for web design.” Firefox is a cross between Internet Explorer and Safari, because it has both an easy to use interface and it is constantly updated to fix issues. New features included in the recently released Firefox 3 include one click bookmarking, and increased browsing speed. Much like Internet Explorer 7, a main focus for Firefox 3 is security, and with parental controls that allow the blocking of unwanted downloads and an almost unstoppable pop-up blocker, the security is a huge improvement of the past Firefox 2 browser.
Google Chrome is the last browser on the list, but it falls behind the other browsers, mainly because its lifespan is so short. Having been recently released on September second, 2008, Google Chrome tries to hard to look good, but it falls behind because it is so slow, and using another browser like safari would be much easier to surf the net. There are some good things going for Google Chrome however, some of the features are useful and intuitive. Mr. Otterspoor says, “Chrome is pretty exciting because it uses the Google tweaked version of the webkit engine (the same engine that Safari runs on) which is proving to be very fast at loading webapps and heavily designed pages." A dynamic tab feature allows you to create tabs, and if need be, drag them off of the browser to create a new window. Also, every tab you’re using runs independently, so if one of the tabs crashes, it won’t take other tabs down with it.
