The people who review software should realize that a browser is something that will be used by common users, for them the javascript rendering engine or ACID tests are as good as the number of memory addresses that can be accessed by the processor. Which means they don\u2019t give a squat & they shouldn\u2019t be made to give a squat! What matters is not how fast the page loads in a test but how well the browser does when it comes to user experience. But I guess the quickest way to give a verdict without actually spending time on something is use benchmarking tools. Page load times are a part of it but aren\u2019t the make or break for a browser. I was a Firefox user till I realized that it had caused me enough mental trauma by freezing my whole machine for opening a tab or by taking more than 2 whole minutes to become usable on start, not to forget the insane amounts of RAM it consumed. Of course there are those who haven\u2019t faced it, I haven\u2019t seen my Windows BSoD either. I switched to IE 8 and loved it till it caused me my Facebook vanity URL. Currently I\u2019m on Safari & Chrome. So here\u2019s my take on all these browsers from a user\u2019s perspective & the perfect browser.<\/p>\n
As I said I don\u2019t give a squat about javascript rendering times, Acid test & Base-Alkaline tests, what matters to me how well the browser responds & what it offers to make the browsing experience better. Let\u2019s talk about the browsers:<\/p>\n
No matter how much people might hate the brand IE, IE 8 is a good browser, it\u2019s not right up there IMO but it is by no means a bad browser, pretty much all commercial & business websites are supported by IE, it is the browser that is available out-of-the-box in the most widely used OS (sorry Europeans). It CANNOT be avoided by developers.<\/p>\n
Accelerators:<\/strong> I love them. They make browsing so much more easier, the most used Accelerator by me is the \u2018Search\u2019.<\/p>\n Web Slices:<\/strong> Mentioned a lot, implemented by a few, this is a neat feature to have. Don\u2019t really know why it didn\u2019t take off.<\/p>\n Tab Isolation & Session Management:<\/strong> The tab isolation & Session Management in IE works better than Chrome. This comes after using both these browsers for a sufficient amount of time.<\/p>\n Incorporates Windows 7 Superbar features: <\/strong>This is a neat feature, wherein if you have multiple tabs open, you can browse through them as if they were multiple windows.<\/p>\n Easy on resources<\/strong><\/p>\n Syncs with Live Mail (desktop): <\/strong>Being a user of Live Mail for my RSS dose this is amazing.<\/p>\n No Download Manager: <\/strong>8 versions done, yet somehow a download manager hasn\u2019t made it into IE.<\/p>\n No rounded corners:<\/strong> From what I\u2019ve heard this is because of Redmond not implementing some CSS\/HTML feature or whatever. But it sucks not to have rounded corners.<\/p>\n A bit slow: <\/strong>This is true, IE is <\/em>slow when it comes to loading<\/strong> pages. Note that I mentioned loading<\/strong> pages, IE does extremely good in responding to Ajax components like Videos & notifications in Facebook. Also, when opening a new tab, the \u2018loading\u2019 that comes for a noticeable time is irritating.<\/p>\n Inefficient Crash Recovery: <\/strong>Lets just say that my experience with IE’s Crash Recovery hasn’t been very positive.<\/p>\n Plugins: <\/strong>Unfortunately as widespread as it maybe developers haven\u2019t really bothered with creating useful plugins for it which is definitely a dampener.<\/p>\n Chrome is a nice browser in a lot of aspects & responsiveness is not one of them, for me it lags a lot when browsing Ajax heavy websites. It freezes itself for a couple of seconds & then comes back to life, which essentially makes for a horrible browsing experience. I love the way Chrome shows the status bar.<\/p>\n Clean interface: <\/strong>This probably is Chrome\u2019s USP.<\/p>\n Easy on resources<\/strong><\/p>\n Task Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n Tabs on top:<\/strong> It\u2019s not that you can\u2019t get used to it, tabs on top make navigating tabs a bit more of a work (On a laptop with such small trackpads it is an annoyance.) Not to mention it’s difficult to drag & snap your Chrome windows in Windows 7 because of this. In general you can conclude that I hate tabs on top.<\/p>\n Can\u2019t re-open recently closed tab<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Response time: <\/strong>Here is where benchmarks don\u2019t matter. Chrome decides to take small 10 second breaks every time I want to right click a link or I open a new tab. It does so on its own with no specific pattern. It just keeps on doing this. AND IT\u2019S ANNOYING! It’s what I would call Browsing #FAIL! This might not be happening to every Chrome-user & that\u2019s why I said, benchmarks don\u2019t make or break browsers.<\/p>\n Plugins: <\/strong>As far as I\u2019m concerned, they don\u2019t exist. On a recommendation I tried installing a plugin it wanted me to switch to the Dev-Mode, Chrome kept on crashing every 15 minutes. IE\u2019s got better plugin support than this!<\/p>\n No RSS Support<\/strong><\/p>\n Being an iTunes user not by choice but by compulsion, I thought Apple can\u2019t code for Windows or they simply don\u2019t want to write efficient code on Windows, but with Safari 4, I\u2019m impressed. I love Safari 4 as a matter of fact it\u2019s my default browser these days.<\/p>\n Top Sites & History: <\/strong>The Cover-Flow display of Top Sites & History is so much more elegant as compared to Opera or Chrome. I simply browse my History for kicks in Safari 4.<\/p>\n Response Time: <\/strong>Much better than Chrome & Firefox on par with IE (this is ajax component loading on various sites.)<\/p>\n Incorporates Windows 7 Superbar features: <\/strong>Neither Chrome nor Firefox (add-on needed) make use of Windows 7\u2019s Superbar features where you can browse through tabs like windows. Though I miss Jumplists, it\u2019s still a lot better.<\/p>\n RSS Support<\/strong><\/p>\n Address bar won’t search<\/strong><\/p>\n No Tab Isolation<\/strong><\/p>\n Can\u2019t re-open recently closed tab: <\/strong>Sucks all the way<\/span>. (Draft issue.)<\/p>\n Weird behavior with links: <\/strong>For some reason Safari 4 has an advanced annoying algo which opens some links in a new window & some in new tabs even though I’ve set the default to open new tabs.<\/p>\n Ah! Firefox the loved-by-all-but-is-still-a-crappy-browser.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be surprised I\u2019ve been a Firefox user from 2.xx times, loved a lot of features that it has only to dump it since version 3 which is nothing less than bloatware. Hoping that 3.5 brings me back to it.<\/p>\n Plugins & Themes: <\/strong>This is a huge reason to use Firefox, you can find plugins to do anything that you want, a huge developer community & an equally good repository backend. But then again it works against the browser as well, too many plugins spoil the broth.<\/p>\n Across platforms: <\/strong>This makes you feel at home when you\u2019re playing with some other OS.<\/p>\n Crash recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n Smart Location Bar<\/strong><\/p>\n Resource hungry: <\/strong>The only reason I left Firefox was for the insane amount of RAM it consumed, even 2 tabs would clock over 200k which is outrageous.<\/p>\n Response time: <\/strong>Unlike Chrome\u2019s behavior (which freezes for a couple of seconds), Firefox takes ages & I mean a really<\/em> long time on first start, not to mention that if you were to minimize the windows & restore it after a couple of minutes, you can go make yourself some good juice for Firefox will freeze your machine for a good 5 minutes.<\/p>\n No Tab Isolation<\/strong><\/p>\n ———————–<\/p>\n As good as implementing Windows 7’s features in the browser is, I haven’t held it against those who don’t ‘coz I’m expecting to see that in the near future.<\/p>\n All said & done about the browsers that I\u2019ve found worth using & mentioning, here\u2019s what my ideal browser would have:<\/p>\n PS: <\/strong>Opera what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What really matters in comparing browsers is their performance and not charts. My ideal browser would contain the following features.<\/p>\nThe Bad:<\/strong><\/h6>\n
\n
Chrome<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Good:<\/strong><\/h6>\n
The Bad:<\/strong><\/h6>\n
\n
Safari<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Good:<\/strong><\/h6>\n
The Bad:<\/strong><\/h6>\n
\n
Firefox<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Good:<\/strong><\/h6>\n
The Bad:<\/strong><\/h6>\n
\n