Common Web Browsers
The web browser is your window to the World Wide Web and is available in a multitude of types and styles. Features vary widely across versions, operating systems, platforms and the type of user at which they are aimed.
As a web design agency with knowledge built up over a number of years, the Cnx Web Solutions team understand that the internet and its related browser technologies have undergone constant development to increase compatability, speed and support for new media techniques.
As part of our daily workload we come into constant contact with the interfaces and capabilities of the latest web browsers, for this reason the list below has been compiled to outline the most popular web browsers and, some of their advantages and disadvantages.
Firefox
Developed by the Mozilla open source community Firefox is their answer to a lean, mean web surfing machine. Based on the same foundations as the Mozilla browser, email functionality has been removed in favour of streamlining code and page rendering techniques without the loss of compatability. In recent years, Firefox's popularity has been constantly increasing. This browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer's biggest rival.
Go here to download the latest version:
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Mozilla
Launched by the Netscape company in 1998, Mozilla is an open source browser with all the functionality that you would expect, and more. Freely available for a number of platforms and in constant development by a large community of software engineers and internet users, Mozilla has gained favour with a noticeable percentage of users worldwide.
Go here to download the latest version:
www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/
Netscape
Originally based on the Mosaic browser developed at the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) this held the position of most popular web browser until the release of Internet Explorer 4.0 in October of 1997. The Netscape company developed much of the functionality we now take for granted in our web browsing software and devised the Gecko system for rendering web page content used by Mozilla and a number of other specialised browsers. The Netscape browser is still popular today and the company continues to improve their browser to take advantage of new internet technologies.
Go here to download the latest version:
www.netscape.com
Opera
The Opera browser is a high quality, multi-platform web browser originally developed as part of a research project of Telenor, Norway's telecoms company, in 1994. The browser has proved very successful since its release combining fast, full-featured, safe internet access with portability. The Opera browser has become a favourite with companies developing small handheld computing devices, mobile phones and has a large and loyal user community.
Go here to download the latest version:
www.opera.com
Internet Explorer
Currently the most common browser in use, (although steadily decreasing in popularity in recent years,) Internet Explorer (IE) was written by Microsoft and has been provided as a standard component of the Windows Operating System since version 1.0 of the browser in August 1995. The browser has fallen out of favour with many internet users after Netscape brought about legal action against Microsoft due to their browser's strangle-hold on the market. Despite this, Internet Explorer remains the (marginal) majority of internet users first experience of the world wide web. A capable browser if somewhat slow compared to the competition (it's biggest competitor being Firefox) it has failed to see any major improvements to functionality in its previous three versions. Now on version 7, IE has followed in the footsteps of many of it's competitors and now uses "tabbed" browsing. Browser aficionados often slate IE for not complying to official web standards and for containing a number of "bugs", meaning web designers often need to implement a number of "workarounds" to ensure that web pages appear as they should.
Go here to download the latest version:
www.microsoft.com
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