Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
conversation about Web browsers are like conversation about organized religion or political science : if you join one , you ’ll in all likelihood discover some strong view . But you might also pick up questions like “ You mean that affair I look at the Web with ? ”
Perhaps you use a certain internet browser simply because it came with your Mac , not because it provides you with the best vane - browsing experience . And your connection web internet browser may not be doing all it can for you — in other actor’s line , it may not allow you to expeditiously get at all the connection has to bid .
This review highlights five browsers that have splendid reputation , have latterly been update , and are widely uncommitted : Apple ’s Safari 2.0 , Mozilla ’s Camino 0.8.4 and Firefox 1.0.6 , The Omni Group ’s OmniWeb 5.1.1 , and Opera Software ’s opera house 8.0.2 . Alexander Clauss ’s iCab is n’t included here because its most recent update , reading 3.0 , is currently a beta . And Netscape ’s Navigator has n’t been updated since our last vane - internet browser review . Also , Microsoft ’s Internet Explorer is n’t included here because its days are numbered — it ’s no longer being developed for the Mac . ( snap here to see our premature review of WWW browsers . )
[ EDITOR ’S banker’s bill : 10/7/05 – At press prison term , the Opera Software began offering the Opera Web internet browser for free . Click here for our updated review article . ]
Must-have features
A Web web internet browser is just a vehicle that aid you get around the Web , and a good entanglement web internet browser is one that ’s unnoticeable . All the browsers in this review have common features — ways to manage bookmarks , cookies , and security options ; tabbed browsing ; and autofill capabilities for Web - based pattern . Each web browser also charge Web page at about the same speed . The only noticeable speed difference used to be Firefox ’s very long computer programme - launching time , which seems to be resolve in version 1.0.6 .
While each of these programs follow through received feature in a slightly different style , the principles run to be the same across all five browser app , or at least like enough that you ’ll quickly get used to the differences . ( Only OmniWeb posed a bit of a problem — the program ’s nonpayment home - page setting was called Start Page and took us several second to locate . ) These browsers disagree most in the extra features they offer and in the ease with which they permit you pilot the Web .
Firefox extends the experience
Mozilla ’s Firefox and Camino are the most various and extensile browsers in this review . They are based on the Mozilla locomotive , which is compatible with most Web sites . And they are designed to accept third - party plug - ins , or extensions , which can add feature , functionality , and unlike looks ( or skins ) to the programme . But there are many more plug - ins available for Firefox than for Camino .
In fact , these extensions are what make Firefox so enceinte . For example , Forecastfox exhibit a weather forecast at the bottom of your internet browser window . And my personal dearie , FoxyTunes , lets you hold in iTunes . There are so many elongation for Firefox that you’re able to have nearly as much fun tricking out the program as you’re able to range the Web .
Firefox also includes several less obvious but evenly cool tools . It has the expert discovery puppet of the web internet browser in this review . While most web browser set a Find window right on top of the Web Thomas Nelson Page you ’re trying to look , Firefox simply brings up a piddling Find box seat at the bottom of the page . Then it highlights the results on the Web page ; options for how your final result are displayed are easily accessible . This feature of speech is nothing short of brilliant .
And Firefox has a grampus pop - up blocking agent that you may enhance with extensions such as Adblock , which also permit you to block other character of ad on entanglement site . Unlike Safari , Firefox does n’t have a build - in RSS reader ; instead , it includes Live Bookmarks , which supervise WWW pages that have RSS feast and then alarm you when the sites are updated .
Aside from the fact that it ’s built on Mozilla ’s stellar foundation , Camino is a little immature . It lack many feature — such as textbook autofill ( except for word ) and RSS - provender realisation — that are received in all the other internet browser . You ’ll want to choose a dissimilar web internet browser for sidereal day - to - day use .
All the news that’s fit to read
Safari ’s most touted new feature is its built - in RSS news reader and aggregator . Many sites on the vane — such as Weblogs and tidings sites ( include Apple.com and Macworld.com)—use RSS feeds to notify site visitor that the Web web site has change . You used to necessitate specialized software to supervise and alarm you to these variety ( see our March 2005 review of RSS- and Atom - provender reader ) . But now most Web browsers include some RSS - feed - monitor capabilities .
Each web internet browser , except Camino , monitors sites that have RSS feeds and alerts you when a web site has been updated . Safari also lets you understand all the tardy headlines without having to exit the comfort of your web internet browser . But Safari ’s news reader is a small awkward . Short of make a folder for all your favorite news show site , there ’s no comfortable path to organize and catch all your favorite feeds . So hard - core Weblog readers or newsworthiness junkies who are used to using a dedicated program may not obtain Safari ’s RSS feature useful . But if you ’re new to the blog- and news - reading game , Safari is sure a good place to take up .
Safari also has a pegleg up on the contest if you have a .Mac account . Using iSync with .Mac , you’re able to synchronize your bookmarker across several Macs .
Part 2: What a browser costs
Opera has several strange interface quirks that save me gauge . For object lesson , pressing Command - T brings up a raw tabbed window in the other browsers , but in Opera the same key combining bring up a bookmark windowpane . When you configure the program to block pop - up window , it belt down up its own footling windows telling you when a daddy - up has been lug . Although you’re able to turn off this predilection , many such oddities that mar the browsing experience come out from time to time . On a positive banker’s bill , Opera is highly configurable , even allowing you to create your own shortcut for search situation . So typecast
OmniWeb also lets you create Workspaces , which are essentially collections of Web Page that you may spread out at the same time . Further , OmniWeb can preserve your current graze state so all the windows open just as you had them when you closed the internet browser or shut down your computer .
OmniWeb is our 2d - favorite web web browser of this clump , providing a unique tabbed - windowpane surroundings , as well as extended selection for customizing your range experience . Unlike the other four browsers , which localise lozenge at the top of the browser app window , OmniWeb places a thumbnail figure of each open window in a drawer on one side of the main browser app window . The welfare of this thumbnail view is double : first , you may see each exposed vane Thomas Nelson Page , which is a useful visual cue ; second , OmniWeb forever monitor the pages in the thumbnail view for changes , and if a change occurs , a small green check mark appears next to the thumbnail look-alike . This approach shot is handy , but having several tabs open at a sentence command that you scroll up and down in the drawer to see every site . And even if you change the thumbnail tabs to text , the drawer itself takes up quite a bit of space .
Dahling, you look mahvelous
Over the past several years , Web pages have moved from dewy-eyed hypertext mark-up language that displayed text with a few image to sites that can be as beautiful and elegant as high - end magazines , and that expose well exalt graphic than you may see in Times Square on a Saturday night .
To get that guileful looking , lifelike artists and Web room decorator have fall to rely on Cascading Style Sheets , or CSS . By using CSS , designer can be more creative with the graphical ingredient they expend , change the organization of textual matter on a pageboy , and change fount , sizes , and style .
The only trouble with OmniWeb is that it may not be compatible with some Web sites because it ’s not based on the Mozilla or the Internet Explorer engine . This can be inconvenient .
Most of the sites you visit daily , such as paper or cartridge holder sites , take advantage of basic forms of CSS but still rely on old , hypertext markup language - drive techniques such as table and frames to provide a consistent seem - and - experience . As expected , all the browsers handled the test sites without a problem . And surprisingly , all the browser app handled thinning - edge CSS technology well , too . So as Web designer take greater advantage of CSS , you ’ll be capable to view the cognitive content on those pages without a problem and exactly as the designer think , no matter which of these browser app you take .
And the developers for each of these browser app are make a point of embracing powerful technologies , such as XMLHTTPRequest , that are n’t presently ubiquitous on the Web but that are sure to shape its future .
Macworld’s buying advice
Mozilla ’s Firefox 1.0.6 is our browser app of choice because it ’s hugely customizable , compatible with the most World Wide Web site and World Wide Web - based applications , and downright sport to use . Sure , Safari 2.0.1 is an excellent web browser app and has some nice new functionality with its integrated RSS newsworthiness reader , but its usefulness does n’t overbalance Firefox ’s .
Are you willing to expend a few more clam for a web browser with better features than a complimentary one can volunteer ? The Omni Group ’s OmniWeb 5.1.1 offers a important time value for $ 30 : thumbnail - based tab , the power to save radical of Web Page as Workspaces , and several small but utilitarian features .
Part 3: What a difference a browser makes
Not all browsers lease you take full advantage of every Web site . In fact , some WWW situation hitch themselves if you ’re not using a sealed web web browser . I learned this lesson while using Six Apart ’s vane - establish software program TypePad . TypePad lets you make and remotely host a Weblog without having to set up any package on your computing machine , and it makes embark text , summate look-alike and hyperlinks , and styling text easy .
I first discovered a problem while I was using Safari to write a blog about a sign I was building . At the sentence , Six Apart had announced some unexampled TypePad feature that I did n’t seem to have access to . Six Apart ’s tech sustenance actuate me to give the app a go in Netscape 7.0 ; sure enough , I suddenly had access to all of the site ’s features .
The reason ? The website has been prepare for habit with Microsoft net Explorer and Mozilla - based browsers such as Camino , Netscape , and Firefox . web browser such as Safari can in all probability handle the JavaScript that give these page their program - same features , but when you load up the page , the site receives your web browser information , run into that you ’re not using IE or a Mozilla - based web browser , and wo n’t load the JavaScript . In many cases , this has nothing to do with your internet browser ’s actual power to full lade the Web site .
So if you find that some Web sites are missing features that you think they should have , try out using a Mozilla - base web browser app such as Netscape or Firefox . That simple change may give you admission to everything you need . or else , some browser app , such as Opera , allow you to imitate another browser app , efficaciously identifying your browser app as either IE or Mozilla . you may also do this in Safari , with Gordon Byrnes’sSafari Enhancer(free ) , which give you the pick of enabling Safari ’s Debug menu . Via the Debug computer menu , you may select the browser app you ’d like to simulate .
Sidebar: How we tested
We pick out ten different Web sites that represent what users might encounter in a distinctive Clarence Day of browse . We visited these sites to see whether the browsers run into several criterion . We also ran a examination of plebeian JavaScript action in each internet browser . To assess overall drug user experience , we visited Web website for theNew York Times , Newsweek , and theSan Francisco Chronicle , and a banking internet site calledM&T Bank . We considered how consistently each web browser display the page , making certain that a land site ’s functionality was the same across browsers . To look at CSS implementation , we discipline out the W3C - validatedVivabitandCSS Zen Garden . For our discussion of XMLHTTPRequest , a engineering that could be challenge for many browsers , we work to the land site talk about in “ Ready for the Revolution . ” We ranJavaScript Speed Test 4.0 , from Andrew Hedges , to determine not only how each web browser handled the far-flung JavaScript language , but also how fast each one complete vulgar JavaScript actions . We also look at various feature on these sites , and used a Web - base Weblog - creation app program call TypePad . ( See “ What a conflict a web browser app make . ” )
Ready for the revolution
A routine of Web web site are beginning to make use of a raw technology called XMLHTTPRequest . build up by Microsoft and supported by most browsers , XMLHTTPRequest allows a Web Thomas Nelson Page to pass with a waiter and retrieve datum . mix with a small JavaScript programming — a proficiency cognise as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML ( AJAX)—this technology can dynamically change entropy on a Web page without reloading it . According to David Sawyer McFarland of Sawyer McFarland Media — the mortal behindMacworld ’s web browser mental test and a frequent contributor to the magazine — this engineering science is now driving sites such asGoogle Maps , Google Suggest , andPressDisplay . McFarland states that this engineering science is , “ hot , hot , hot ” and that “ many WWW sites are jumping on the bandwagon . ”
All the browsers reviewed here stack up evenly when it comes to loading this not - yet - standard code . They all palm these website without a trouble , which means that no matter which internet browser you apply , you ’ll be quick for the revolution .
[ Jeffery Battersby is a frequent contributor toMacworld . ]
