Your Preferred Internet Browser?

[SeaVisionBurma]

Chrome for speed - and I like the interfaces they have now for gmail.

Opera for all else - just find it a superior browser for my needs, plus the 'appear as' setting useful for most sites that need IE....

While we're on this topic - I seem to remember that if I hover over the little briefcase icon to the left of topic listing - it would give info eg 'new replies' 'you have posted in this thread' etc - doesn't work for Chrome, anyone have advice on this??

[zzdocxx]

OK, you guys that use multiple browsers, why? ? ?

Occasionally if I need IE I use IE tab in Firefox.

OK so why do you use so many different ones, and how do you choose when to use which?

Or is it just for fun?

Yeah I guess I'll try Chrome when it is spiffed up a little more, happy with FF2 right now.

[bdenner]

_________FSW__UM__TV__Total_Percentage

Firefox____88___20___60__168__70.29%

IE________10___14___8___32____13.39%

Safari_____4_____3___4___11____4.60%

Opera_____1_____3___5____9____3.77%

Google Ch_6_____3___8____17____7.11%

Other_____1_____1___0_____2____0.84%

________________________239

These are the results of a similar poll across TV and 2 other sites. Looks like the overall result is closely representative in the TV poll.

PS. Sorry I've no idea haw to use the 'Tab' here!!

[SeaVisionBurma]

OK, you guys that use multiple browsers, why? ? ?

Occasionally if I need IE I use IE tab in Firefox.

OK so why do you use so many different ones, and how do you choose when to use which?

Or is it just for fun?

Reading back through the thread, there was only a couple of posters who used 'multiple' browsers, actually one of those posters said they 'had' multiple browsers, didn't actually say they used them all. I didn't get the impression there were a lot of people using 'so many different ones', that's a little exaggerated IMO.

I use 2 - as per my post above - Chrome and Opera. Certainly not for 'fun'.

Chrome because it is fast and has no bells and whistles, and Opera because there are certain web pages that won't open in Chrome. I think George said something similar.

I jump between IE, Opera and Chrome depending on which websites will take which browsers.

That probably explains why people may use more than one browser.

[khatrineluz]

so far with my experience Mozilla firefox been a great help to me...

[Gary A]

You must use a browser on a regular basis to see if it is stable and can do what you expect a browser to do. I find little features by accident for most of them. For serious downloads, I use Firefox. For just surfing I normally use Safari. Chrome has enough glitches that I will wait for a stable release before trying it again. I have Opera 10 and that works pretty well also and I look forward to a release. The brand new Firefox looks good but again, I will wait for a release.

I guess it comes down to the fact that I am never totally satisfied with any browser and am waiting for that perfect release. Since I now have a much faster connection, the browser speed is not as important as it was when I had a slow connection.

[mezzoninny]

Ooh, I got quoted!

There are always sites that only work with IE, for instance, even in this day and age.

Personally I'm wary of Firefox, but Safari Opera and Chrome aren't necessarily compliant if you want to do shopping or do serious business.

For me it's the same thing with using both Windows and OS X. There will always be the odd thing that's supposed to be compliant, but you can't get to work, no matter what. And I'm never truly comfortable unless I've got tools to cover for everything I do. And I hate idealistic people who say stuff like "well if sites don't adhere to web standards then screw them", that's not the way life is.

Being a nice dude who's open to public opinion, I introduced Firefox to my mom, and after about a year of normal use, it spontaneously degenerated into a bit of a mess, to the point that she can't use it anymore. Uninstall/Reinstall couldn't fix it. I introduced her to Opera, and then Sleipnir (an Japanese app that turns IE6 into a tabbed browser), but there's this ONE website whose navigation gets totally messed up. So I ran out of options from the gigantic sea of IE-cursing netizens, she decided to switch to IE7 and she's fine now.

[Plus]

This is what TV looks like in my Opera - notice how neat it is, no ads, no annoying yellow boxes. And check what it does with quotes, too.

[SeaVisionBurma]

Ooh, I got quoted!

Happy to oblige - there's another one for you

There are always sites that only work with IE, for instance, even in this day and age.

And I hate idealistic people who say stuff like "well if sites don't adhere to web standards then screw them", that's not the way life is.

I'd have to agree with this - the world (wide web?) will continue to revolve, regardless of whether folks boycott a website because of functionality... Bit pointless to miss out because of a nasty non-complying site/browser issue

Has anyone had any functionality issues using Chrome with this Forum??

[SeaVisionBurma]

Plus - very impressive, I may have to switch back to Opera. I have to admit banner ads are completely wasted on me - I can't recall ever clicking one.

What version/release of Opera are you using??

[Plus]

It's not the version, it's custom javascript that hides them. It's in Preferences-Advanced-Content-Javascript Options. Check where your local javasctipt files can be located and save the file there. Must have .js extention, I can't upload it as a file, so here goes the long version.

>>>>

if( location.hostname.indexOf('thaivisa.com') != -1 ){

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", foobar, false);

}

function foobar(){

foo1();

bar1();

quote();

simTop();

toolbar();

}

function toolbar(){

toolbar=document.getElementsByTagName("center");

cent=toolbar[0];

//alert(cent.innerHTML);

cent.parentNode.removeChild(cent);

}

function simTop(){

if(document.getElementById("fo_simt")){

document.getElementById("fo_simt").style.display="none";

document.getElementById("logostrip").style.display="none";

}

}

function foo1(){

h3=document.getElementsByTagName("h3")

if(h3.length!=0){

h3[0].parentNode.style.display="none";

}

}

function bar1(){

ay=document.getElementsByTagName("a");

for(i=0;i<ay.length;i++){

if(ay.style.backgroundColor=="#ffff00"){

ay.style.backgroundColor="#979BA0";

}

}

}

function quote(){

q=document.getElementsByTagName("div");

if(q.length!=0){

for(t=0;t<q.length;t++){

if(q[t].className=="quotemain"){

q[t].style.display="none";

b=document.createElement("input")

b.type="button";

b.value="show";

b.style.cursor="pointer"

b.style.backgroundColor="#f0f0f0"

b.onclick=show

q[t].previousSibling.appendChild(;

}

}

}

}

function show(){

this.parentNode.nextSibling.style.display="block";

this.value="hide";

this.onclick=hide;

}

function hide(){

this.parentNode.nextSibling.style.display="none";

this.value="show";

this.onclick=show;

}

[JetsetBkk]

George's user stats rearranged:

I'm stuck with FF v2.0.0.18 as some of my "must have" extensions aren't compatible with FF v3+

[Phil Conners]

I have used Firefox on several PC's for years, never had any of them corrupt on me. Probably more an issue from the keyboard and up

Using a few plugins:- Adblock Plus, Foxmarks and IE Tab to mention the most important.

With IE Tab even crappy websites made for MSIE-only are perfectly ok (as it uses the MSIE engine inside FF) - but this opens another issue with the stats reported by websites, as a website viewed with IE Tabs in FF will show up in the stats as MSIE is used.

Edited December 12, 2008 by Phil Conners

[zzdocxx]

Foxmarks, eh?

Only thing, is it secure to have them accessing your computer to update the bookmarks, and is your privacy protected?

Seems like a good idea but I am always leery of this kind of thing.

Hey thanks for the info etc.

[Gary A]

I too have the problem with Firefox having glitches after a while. I always run the latest version and frequent updates pretty well eliminate that problem.

It looks to me like Google Chrome got their attention. All the major browsers are looking to be faster. IE 8 has MANY problems. Safari is crashing often with Windows and Chrome still has glitches. The newest Firefox can't use the add ons. Opera 10 looks to be the best of the new lot.

[JetsetBkk]

Foxmarks, eh?

Only thing, is it secure to have them accessing your computer to update the bookmarks, and is your privacy protected?

Seems like a good idea but I am always leery of this kind of thing.

Hey thanks for the info etc.

Firefox automatically backs up the bookmarks every day and puts them in a folder called "bookmarkbackups" in the user's profile. Described here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarkbackups_folder

You can specify how many copies you want to keep by changing the value of "browser.bookmarks.max_backups" in "about:config". The default is 5.

[nikster]

One could assume that IE is at the top of the list as this is the browser that most PCs come equipped with and I would tend to believe that most TV members are not canny enough to be able to download a free browser from the Internet and load it on their PC......

That's the way it is, not just for TV users but normal people in general. The poll supports my theory, actually, given that FF is dominant: If you know what a browser is, you use Firefox. If you don't you use IE. Take my mom - she certainly doesn't know what a browser is, much less that she has a choice. IE is "the internet" to her. If it weren't for geek friends who fix people's computers, FF would have a much smaller share even.

I use Safari (Mac) and FF as backup. Safari has its quirks but it's overall just really comfy, kinda like your old pair of sneakers.

Google Chrome is MIA from the Mac, which is pretty embarrassing. I once visited the soon to be stuff of legends Google campus and most people were sporting Macs there - the vast majority of notebooks I saw was definitely Mac, like 90%.

[zzdocxx]

Thanks JetSet, I always have to go looking for that folder when I do a reinstall or backup. And it always takes me a while to find it!

OK I am going to go read that article to refresh my memory.