In addition, some Web developers employ code outside the engine itself that can affect the way pages draw. Notably, the forthcoming Firefox 3 will use Gecko 1.9, which fixes numerous deficiencies in the current engine, and it may take time for other Gecko-based browsers to catch up. For example, one browser might use an older version of an engine, resulting in different behavior. On the other end, DevonAgent’s slim toolbar isn’t customizable at all, and SeaMonkey offers just a few trivial options in the Navigator pane of its Preferences window.Īll things being equal, if two browsers share a rendering engine, Web pages should appear the same in both. Most browsers let you add, remove, and customize toolbars and other window elements, with Opera and Firefox being the most configurable. Camino and DevonAgent offer tabs, but they are the only programs that don’t let you reorder them via drag and drop.įirefox’s Themes and Opera’s Skins enable you to change the frame, color, toolbar icons, and other visual attributes of your windows SeaMonkey also features user-installable themes, though few of them work in OS X (and those that do are of debatable aesthetic merit). You can hide this pane or switch to conventional tabs. Similarly, Shiira places thumbnails at the bottom of the window, in a horizontally scrolling area called the PageDock. I prefer this arrangement because it makes better use of vertical space-and it makes finding a page in a sea of open tabs easier. OmniWeb continues to stand out for its innovative approach of placing thumbnails or titles (your choice) for each open page in a drawer alongside the window. Tabbed browsing, in one form or another, has been de rigueur on Web browsers for years, and all the programs we reviewed let you display multiple pages sequentially within a single window. Multiple Services: Flock not only displays RSS feeds and live data from sites like Facebook and Twitter, but also offers a built-in blog editor that works with most popular publishing platforms. Then there’s SeaMonkey-its unattractive, outdated interface distracts from its otherwise capable feature set. DevonAgent is as minimalist as they come. Most browsers echo Safari’s clean look, including Camino, OmniWeb, Shiira, and the newly redesigned iCab. Safari sets the bar high with its simple, usable interface. Is it elegant or awkward? Slick and pleasant or crowded and utilitarian? The browsers we tested ran the gamut. Given a broadband Internet connection, all of these browsers were adequately zippy at displaying most sites.Īpart from that big white space that gets filled with information from the Web, a browser’s interface is the first thing you notice. Since so many variables affect a browser’s perceived responsiveness, it’s difficult-and at times misleading-to try to render performance judgments. We informally evaluated performance, but didn’t conduct official speed tests. Flock, for example, has been updated to version 1.1.)Īs for testing, we put all of these browsers through their paces and judged them on interface, Web capabilities, and extra features. (Browsers are updated frequently, and the versions we review here may have been updated by the time you read this. Netscape Navigator and Mozilla, which we’ve covered previously, are no longer developed or supported. Web Browser Roundup), but there are a few newcomers, including Flock, SeaMonkey, and Shiira, as well as DevonAgent, which we Most have appeared in earlier browser comparison articles (see All are free except for DevonAgent ($50) iCab, which comes in free and Pro ($25) versions and OmniWeb ($15). With that in mind, we’ve taken a fresh look at ten browsers for OS X: Alexander Clauss’s And, of course, they should do it with style. But they should also be able to protect your security and privacy facilitate your ability to fill out forms integrate well with your operating system, applications, and various Internet services provide extensive search capabilities and allow oodles of customization options to let you conform them to your every whim. So what constitutes a solid Web browser these days? All modern Mac browsers can competently display HTML pages, interactive Flash animations, and QuickTime video. Clean Interface: Safari is able to handle some very sophisticated browser tricks, but it never looks cluttered or complicated. Now many people rely on browsers for reading e-mail messages and news feeds, creating spreadsheets, editing photos, watching videos, and doing dozens of other tasks that once required stand-alone software. And as the Web has matured, so too have expectations for what a browser should do. It’s also a shopping mall, television, workshop, school, and community center. But the Internet is no longer just a huge online library. Web browsers were just that: a way to browse the Web.
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