Which Browser will you pick?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Watching the browser space has suddenly become a full time job. Some days ago Opera 9.5 released and for a new Opera user it was a wow moment. IE 8.0 is in beta and will soon launch.

Today, I downloaded Firefox 3.0. (I had downloaded IE 8.0 some 30 days back. I had been using Safari for some 3 to 4 months.) Before I share some of my experiences, I must add that each browser release calls for a separate article which I will attempt in the near future.

Features parade:

First of all the new avatar of FireFox (FF). FF 3.0 installation was a breeze. (so was Opera and IE, so no marks for FF on that front)

It seems like it just took over FF2.x files and updated it.

Got Firebug incompatibility message and was disabled asked me if I want to check now, and I promptly said no.

Felt it is has an IE Look & Feel now and is more windowy. the tabs look better. FF3 startup appeared comparable with that of Opera. Although once up Opera brings up its tabs quickly while FF3 takes a few seconds. IE 8.0 was slower. This is based on observation and not tested using a stop-watch!

It has automatically picked all my settings in FF2.x. The address bar acts like a ajax search bar, Opera 9.5 gave me more options though.

Firther on the speed front, NYTimes opened a few seconds faster than Opera 9.5. FF3 full screen brings up a scroll bar; Opera doesnt; IE 8 does;

IE 8.0 offers zooming in and out with keyboard shortcuts clearly announced; Opera offers fit to width, small screen and full screen. I use fit to width regularly.

In IE8 and FF3, the top nav bar drops in on mouse over; doesnt happen in Opera; "esc" key in Opera reverts to normal screen mode but this toggle is absent from FF and IE, instead it offers a restore button on the sliding navbar.

Wait. I just discovered more :) Just go over the Tools menu tab and click on Add Ons and you will get all the add ons, most used plug-ins including Macromedia (Adobe) Flash, Adobe PDF and MS Silverlight. Something I didnt see in Opera, it came with many default add-ons. Just a policy of allowing users pick what they want. I picked up the Gmail 2 add-on. Opera handles Gmail shoddily.

IE8 has a webpage sorter, like Opera's speed dial. FF3 has an add-on and describes it as "Opera-like" speed dial.

FF3 has also added a "star" within the address bar to mark a page as a bookmark or edit it.

Opera is still the winner:

I still like Opera 9.5 for the following reasons:

a. an inbuilt notes, i am using this to write this review

b. inbuilt mail client

c. small things like highlighting a word and sending it to notes, or searching it on web or translating it if you like

d. a very homely environment

e. compact, makes you feel you are in control of the web

f. holy cow, you can actually use voice web. I love this

More than anything else, I liked the way Opera was built. Long before people asked for more features and a better UI, they had both. They are trail-blazers in a way like Apple by bringing in newer technologies as default features. Be it DOM support, asynchronous Javascript calls what is now Ajax, native CSS support or file access modality for Opera widgets.

They are way ahead.

I also liked the fact that Opera was started off by two visionaries, Geir Ivarsøy and Jon von Tetzchner, Norwegians. They brought a design and product engineering model which is very visible in their product, Opera. 

They have shown that a small company can create wonderful things. (Ivarsoy passed away last year.)

How I came to an alternative browser:

From IE and Firefox, I had drifted to Safari since it made web browsing so much the simpler. An elegant, simple UI. Its Bonjour tool, for instance, was cool, I could monitor my network printer easily Its bookmarks feature was simple and elegant.

I would spend hours "inspecting" the webpages, the images, looking up the network status when things were downloading, this was like looking up the task manager in your windows. It was way cool.

I loved my Safari till I downloaded IE8 which talked about some fancy things like "activities" and "webslices". Never used it though. I thought the Emulate IE & button was a good idea but it didnt work as advertised, atleast for me.

I was floored when I came across Opera 9.5 beta. It configured my gmail IMAP in a jiffy. The full release of 9.5 is not configuring gmail IMAP, this beats me.

I have grown to love Opera for now.

For a better future:

Among the things I like IE would do, I hope it will integrate Live features and in case of FF with Google docs, calendar.

One important thing I miss in Opera is a native calendar support (because they already have a mail client). And the fact that Opera doesn't handle Google products well is somewhat disturbing.