27th January 2009
A few of years ago, Internet Explorer was thought of as the best browser out there. We have come a long way since then and the browser market looks a lot healthier. Firefox, Opera, Safari and now Google Chrome have ensured that those IE days are a dark and distant memory.
Unfortunately, even with the increased choice and improved products I am still left wanting for the perfet web browser. Of my 3 favourites (sorry Opera) each has a negative aspect that I cannot ignore.
+ Plugins, plugins, plugins - how could we live without the Firefox add-ons?
- Aggravating occasional crashes and memory leaks, can also be very slow to load up
+ Super-fast - How did we ever manage with Internet Explorer when the web can go this fast?
- A definite lack of plugins. I am lost without a minimum of Del.icio.us, Firebug and Flash block!
- Doesn't work on Linux
+ Fast and slick, reliable, great interface
- Again, plug-ins are not present
- Again, doesn't work on Linux
So it seems that a defect is made apparent in each browser by the strengths of one or more of its competitors. Firefox would be regarded as perfect, if I only the speed of Chrome had never been experienced, and in the same way Chrome and Safari would suffice if plug-ons had not become so important to FireFox.
I predict that whichever browser first removes the negative aspects mentioned here, will gain a huge win in the browser popularity contest.
The browsers more likely to meet this target are the ones which are improving most rapidly, which due to being Open Source is Firefox or Chrome.
So, will my broswer of choice for 2009 be Chrome complete with plugins, or Firefox with improved speed?