The Internet is at war. In fact, the whole consumer market is actively engaging in many wars across many different levels. The thing is, while we know that there is a “browser war” going on out there, we wonder what exactly is going on. Who is actually fighting and how? We are all familiar with the “big 3” and I would even risk saying “big 5”: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome Browser, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Opera’s Opera Browser. But what are they fighting for? Market share? Mozilla will tell you that they are fighting for the open web, and yet, no one else is. At the end of the day, regardless of the individual motives of the companies, this whole war is about who has the browser you should use.
So, how do you figure out what browser you should use? Chrome is constantly at the forefront of new technology, Firefox has the most add-ons and biggest community, Internet explorer has the most users, and well … Opera and Safari really have nothing special about them aside from the fact that they are the next two big (and yet really small) browsers on the list of many, many others out there. Yet, they offer very distinct flavors of a browser experience some people prefer over any other browser out there.
To the average user who just wants to surf the web, the presence of advanced technology and philosophy behind a browser doesn’t matter. Most people want the most stable, and fastest browser. Those with a bit more understanding also look at security and the browsers overall effect on their system. All of the big 3 browsers know this, which is why you have things like Google’s plethora of benchmarks that make Chrome out to be the fastest browser and you see Microsoft pitching security scares.
At the end of the day, who do you believe, and how do you actually compare browsers? Are there any tests that are objective and fair in the sense that you can accept them at face value or do they all have to be taken with a grain of salt? I have been throwing out a lot of questions, so let me answer this one right away: There is no such thing as a fair test. All tests, no matter who makes them, are tailored to cater to a certain feature. If the developers of a browser provide it, a test is made for a certain browser, and even if a third party like ConceivablyTech were to create their own tests and run them in a seemingly fair way, these tests still focus only on a handful of features, which do not represent a browser as a whole and may end up being misleading, whether on purpose or not, to the end user.
With that said, however, these tests do serve a purpose. Most benchmarks out there are actually created to help developers (not users) to evaluate their products and find places to improve, and many users can see the strong and weak points of different products based on these tests. However, before you use any test to determine which browser you should be using, think about this: Does this test target what you care about?
Another thing to keep in mind is the platform software and hardware. If I were to run a test pinning Chrome versus Firefox on my machine with 8 GB of 1666 GHz DDR3 RAM, a 3 GHz quad core i7, and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 540 with 2G B of dedicated VRAM, and a 7200 RPM SATA6 HDD on Windows 7 Ultimate with drivers tailored for this specific hardware, I would get a very different result than on the machine I had 2 years ago.
Trying to find the right browser for you, other than following the crowd and a certain hype, involves some work. I suggest to sit down and pin down what is important to you. What do you do with your browser? What do you want it to do for you? What aspect is most important to you on this specific machine? What do you not actually need? If you answer these questions you can pick specific tests, which will help you tell what browser is best for your needs. Better yet, you can even run the test yourself pinning the different browsers against each other. The results might surprise you. You might find out that the browser you have been so dedicated to for so long is not actually the right browser for you, and you may be happier with an alternative. You might find that you are actually using the right browser but the wrong version. Remember that not all browsers were created equal.
If you don’t know where to start, feel free to post what you are looking for in a browser in the comment below so we can try and help you and send you to tests for your needs. Also let us know what browser you use and why. Here at ConceivablyTech we are always interested in our readers’ opinions and you might also just help someone else decide which browser they should use.
To the average user who just wants to surf the web, the presence of advanced technology and philosophy behind a browser doesn’t matter. Most people want the most stable, and fastest browser. Those with a bit more understanding also look at security and the browsers overall effect on their system. All of the big 3 browsers know this, which is why you have things like Google’s plethora of benchmarks that make Chrome out to be the fastest browser and you see Microsoft pitching security scares.
At the end of the day, who do you believe, and how do you actually compare browsers? Are there any tests that are objective and fair in the sense that you can accept them at face value or do they all have to be taken with a grain of salt? I have been throwing out a lot of questions, so let me answer this one right away: There is no such thing as a fair test. All tests, no matter who makes them, are tailored to cater to a certain feature. If the developers of a browser provide it, a test is made for a certain browser, and even if a third party like ConceivablyTech were to create their own tests and run them in a seemingly fair way, these tests still focus only on a handful of features, which do not represent a browser as a whole and may end up being misleading, whether on purpose or not, to the end user.
Another thing to keep in mind is the platform software and hardware. If I were to run a test pinning Chrome versus Firefox on my machine with 8 GB of 1666 GHz DDR3 RAM, a 3 GHz quad core i7, and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 540 with 2G B of dedicated VRAM, and a 7200 RPM SATA6 HDD on Windows 7 Ultimate with drivers tailored for this specific hardware, I would get a very different result than on the machine I had 2 years ago.
Trying to find the right browser for you, other than following the crowd and a certain hype, involves some work. I suggest to sit down and pin down what is important to you. What do you do with your browser? What do you want it to do for you? What aspect is most important to you on this specific machine? What do you not actually need? If you answer these questions you can pick specific tests, which will help you tell what browser is best for your needs. Better yet, you can even run the test yourself pinning the different browsers against each other. The results might surprise you. You might find out that the browser you have been so dedicated to for so long is not actually the right browser for you, and you may be happier with an alternative. You might find that you are actually using the right browser but the wrong version. Remember that not all browsers were created equal.
As for me, I mostly use Firefox. My reasons are that, on my machines, no matter which browser I test, the results are hardly significant because my hardware can push these tests to their limit, and even if one browser uses more memory then another, I still have more RAM then I know what to do with. In that case, I look for the community. I have also grown to rely on many different add-ons which I simply could not browse without. However, I am not saying Firefox is the browser for you. Everyone should make their own choice, and I encourage you to think about what I have said and go and figure out which browser is in fact tailored closest to your needs.
If you don’t know where to start, feel free to post what you are looking for in a browser in the comment below so we can try and help you and send you to tests for your needs. Also let us know what browser you use and why. Here at ConceivablyTech we are always interested in our readers’ opinions and you might also just help someone else decide which browser they should use.
Michael Rabinovsky in Business on October 20
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