Types of Web Browsers

Types of Web Browsers

A web browser is an interface that helps a computer user gain access to all the content that is on the Internet and the hard disk of the computer. It can view images, text documents, audio and video files, games, etc. More than one web browser can also be installed on a single computer. The user can navigate through files, folders and websites with the help of a browser. When the browser is used for browsing web pages, the pages may contain certain links which can be opened in a new browser. Multiple tabs and windows of the same browser can also be opened.

Web browsers are an old concept in computers. As time passed, browsers with advanced functionality were developed and updated. The primary and secondary features and facilities offered by web browsers include downloads, bookmarks, and password management. They also offer functions like spell checking, search engine toolbars, tabbed browsing, advertisement filtering, HTML access keys and pop-up blocking.

Internet Explorer
This is the most widely-used web browser by people around the world. It was developed by Microsoft in 1994 and released in 1995 as a supportive package to Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It is presently known as Windows Internet Explorer, was formerly called Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), and more is commonly known as IE. People have a misconception that browsing the Internet is possible only through Internet Explorer. They are unaware of various web browsers that are available. This simply proves that Internet Explorer is used by the majority. According to statistics, its usage share from 1999 to 2003-04 was around 95%. Since then, there has been a lot of competition in the market, with many software companies coming up with browsers that challenge IE in their features and usage. Microsoft occasionally releases updates to their previous versions of IE, which have some enhanced capabilities. The latest version is Internet Explorer 8 which is a free update. The 'favicon', which is the favorites icon was introduced first in IE, and was later adopted by many other browsers. Initially, IE did not support tabbed browsing, but today, it can be used even in the older versions, by installing toolbars.

Mozilla Firefox
It is owned by Mozilla Corporation and was the result of an experimentation. This browser has gone through many name changes due to name clashes with other products. 'Mozilla Firefox' was officially announced in February 2004. It was earlier named Phoenix, Firebird, and eventually Firefox. It is the second-most famous browser after Internet Explorer, as there were around 100 million downloads within a year of its release. Until November 2008, 700 million downloads were recorded. Since the release of Firefox, the sale of Internet Explorer has gone down drastically. It has around 22% of the market share at present. It has undergone many updates and version changes that were made to improve usability to the universal users. It can be used on most operating systems, but was found to be more prone to vulnerabilities. However, the problems were fixed in the newer versions. As it is an open source software, its source code is available,thus allowing everyone to access the code. It supports tabbed browsing that allows the user to open multiple sites in a single window. Session storage is also an important feature of Firefox, which allows the user to regain access to the open tabs after he has closed the browser window. Apart from these, there are many user-friendly features that Firefox offers.

Safari
This is a web browser from Apple, Inc., which is compatible with Mac OS X operating system, Microsoft Windows, and the iPhone OS. Safari was released by Apple in January 2003 as a public beta. As of March 2009, the market share of Safari has gone up to 8.23%. The Safari 4 beta release claims to have many features like VoiceOver Screen Reader, that reads aloud everything that takes place on the screen, with text and web links. It also has features like CSS Canvas, LiveConnect, XML 1.0, and JavaScript support, and Cover Flow. 'Grammar Checking' is an interesting built-in feature, which performs a grammar check on the typed text and gives suggestions to correct your sentence if wrong. If you need to fill an online form with your personal information, AutoFill is a feature that automatically does that for you, with the help of information that is stored in your address book or Outlook. Safari supports all the functions that are available in other browsers.

Opera
This browser was developed by Opera Software in 1996. It is a well-known browser that is mainly used in Internet-activated mobile phones, PDAs, and smartphones. Opera Mini and Opera Mobile are the browsers used in PDAs and smartphones. It is compatible with many operating systems such as Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. Though it is not a renowned computer browser, it is popular in mobile devices. It is also compatible with Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems for smartphones and PDAs. Opera 9.64 which is the latest version, provides an e-mail client known as the Opera Mail. The company claims that Opera is the fastest browser in the world. It also has some common functions like zoom and fit-to-width, content blocking, tabs and sessions, download manager with BitTorrent, and mouse gestures.

Google Chrome
This web browser was developed by Google. Its beta and commercial versions were released in September 2008 for Microsoft Windows. It has soon become the fourth-most widely used browser with a market share of 1.23%. The browser versions for Mac OS X are under development. The browser options are very similar to that of Safari, the settings locations are similar to Internet Explorer 7, and the window design is based on Windows Vista.

Netscape Navigator/Netscape
It was developed by Netscape Communications Corporation and was most popular in the 1990s. Exceptional features were provided at the time of its release, which helped it rise to fame with a market share of more than 50% in the 1990s. It was compatible with almost every operating system. Since 2002, it has almost disappeared from the market due to strong competition from rivals like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc. It had undergone many version changes to maintain its stake in the market, none of which were very successful.

Although there are many web browsers available and many more are likely to arrive in future, only those which are exciting and user-friendly will be able to survive market competition and hold on to a substantial market share.