Gizmo's Freeware Reviews: Best Free Web Browser

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13 March 2012
by George.J

Introduction

This article is divided into three sections 1) MEGA WEB BROWSERS includes the most popular, powerful and heavyweight browsers 2) LIGHTWEIGHT WEB BROWSERS includes the browsers that provides the best performance with respect to memory and CPU consumption and 3) OTHER BROWSERS includes browsers that haven't been discussed in both the above categories.

Back in the early 1990s when the World Wide Web was young, there was only one web browser worth using Netscape, which had evolved from Mosaic. Then Microsoft gave us Internet Explorer and subsequently started including it with their OS. Thus began the browser wars, and IE eventually emerged as the clear winner.

Since then of course there has been a virtual explosion of browsers. Some are designed to be minimalistic and others target specific users such as those majoring on social networking. There are also clones of established browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome which seek to improve on the original by being “leaner” or offering different features.

When it comes to web browsers, everyone has an opinion. Every web browser will have a specific feature set that appeals to some but not to others. The criteria used for selecting browsers in this review are as follows:

* Speed - How fast does the browser load a page? Important in any browser, but not the only criterion for judgment.

* Security - How well can the browser handle exploits in web coding as well as keeping your online information safe? Some browsers today even have a "Private browsing" mode that leaves no trace of your browsing history on the PC.

* Ease of use - How intuitive and easy to use is the browser?

* Feature set - What kind of features are available to enhance the browsing experience (eg tabbed browsing, handling of bookmarks, etc.)?

* Flexibility and Expandability - Can the browser handle badly coded or non-compliant HTML pages? Is it expandable through add-on programs? Does it display included content (such as flash video) properly?

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