It feels nice to be blogging again... long time no see.
So, starting off with the posts subject : trying out four browsers and make recommendations.
The list : Mozilla Firefox ,Internet Explorer ,Flock and Netscape Navigator.
Mozilla Firefox
The ever stable and my all-time favourite is the one I use for everyday browsing.Infact ,it is a little interesting how I got to make this post.For a long time, I wanted to check out the home page of the browser (Pardon me guyz, yup, I haven't done it until yesterday). And then there was it, the words that are my mantra for using computers - personalize :)
That somehow led me to a page which was covering Six Flavours of Firefox out of which two were of no interest ,one is more of a media player than a browser( do try it out, I did quite a long time back in its Beta stage and was said to be the next big thing after Firefox itself, it looks cool too) ,one was for the Mac and the other two being covered here ,Flock and Netscape Navigator.
I don't think saying more about Firefox would be of any interest to you guys except if i recommend some good add-ons which I use :
1. del.icio.us Bookmarks
2. Elite proxy switcher (only for people who need to keep shifting between proxies)
3. Foxytunes - this is one amazing hing.
4. Google Toolbar - ah,oh, this must've been numbered 1 ,never mind ;)
5. No Squint.
6. PDF Download
7. StumbleUpon.
And as for themes ,if you like minimalistic themes , go in for iFox or PitchDark. I use a variation of the former , iFox Graphite.
Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft has made a great comeback with this one. I used it for about 6 months after release when I finally realised that Google Toolbar has more customization options in FF than in IE7 ( FF fans thank Google and my personalization here ).Extremely stable and better memory management makes this a very good choice for people who do regular browsing . Infact I see absolutely no reason why a layman(letz use the word junta) who has Vista would leave IE7 . Infact, with its amazing integration into the OS , I recommend you don't.
Well, my current usage of IE7 is restricted to Microsoft's sites which are heavy and I use IE7 exclusively so that it caches these sites as much as possible (you know? I'm smart :-B)
Netscape Navigator 9
Netscape Navigator 9 is based upon FF and takes the crown as far as startup times are concerned.
It has lots of features and claims to be designed with 'socializing' as the area it addresses. Well, it does have great integration of Netscape.com ,a mini-browser , LinkPad akin to live clipboard for FF , news subscription , Sitemail Notifier and Friends' Activity Sidebar and something called Integrated Voting but that is pretty much it. Looks aren't that great and buttons on the installed toolbars don't look good either.
All I could say is Netscape came up with a faster and lighter browser that would make loyalists happy but not something that would capture the market . It sometimes hurts to see one Giant in dire straits. I still remember those old days when IE sucked and Navigator was the way to go.
Flock
Easily the most interesting and 'useful' of the lot but heavy on RAM. That apart I could find only one complaint , the space left after all the 'specials' is a little less than what you generally have in FF.The interesting stuff - where do i start ? :D
The unique thing of this browser is the Flock Toolbar that can be hid just like a normal toolbar.
And then, the individual descriptions of the buttons, from the left.
1. My World : This takes you to the page you see above.
2. Media Streams : Displays videos or pictures according to the choice of the channel/stream.
3. Show Favorite Sites : This shows you your bookmarks ,both local and online .Supports del.icio.us
4. Display accounts and services : Another very important button. Access all your accounts one-touch.
5. Display Feed Sidebar : self-explanatory
6. Display Web ClipBoard : Drag and drop anything as you see it, pictures or text. Use it later for cut ,copy or paste.
7. Create a blog post :The browser opens up a nice text edit styling and gives us the option as to which blog engine to publish to (I'm publishing this via this feature)
8. Uploader : Again a tool to upload photos to various sites .Flickr and PhotoBucket supported.
