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There are so many web browsers out there that not too many people actually care.  Why should they when IE6, IE7, and IE8 were installed as part of Windows, or were upgraded through Windows update, right?  Some people even though they are sick of using Internet Explorer, they still prefer IE over something else so they can avoid learning how to use another web browser.  Then there is another group of people that prefers to stay away from IEs and turn to Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and many other less well known browsers.

Why some people prefer another browser over IEs?  The idea is that using another web browser over IE may be hacker-safe.  As too many hackers and scammers are targeting IE users, it’s somewhat safer to use a less well known browser where hackers and scammers pay less attention to.  Browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Opera are quite good in offering stability, usability, performance, and features that IEs may not have.

Firefox has thousands of add-ons that are quite useful, and to name the fews that you may like such as NoScript, WOT, Video DownloadHelper, Firebug, Personas, PDF Download, FoxTab, Forecastfox, GooglePreview, CoolPreviews, and so much more.  Some people think that Firefox is much faster than IEs.

Chrome is a browser that made by Google.  Chrome has a special feature that most browsers don’t have is that each opened tab is sandbox — means each tab has its own process.  This means whenever a website or a web application that you open up through a tab goes berserk, crashes your web browsers, but with Chrome the bad websites can only crash a process, and so only a single tab will be out of service.  Chrome has a very clean look when comparing it with Firefox and other browsers.  Chrome rather has its users see more of a website they visit than a browser itself, and so most features on Chrome stays out of users’ sights.

Opera has a very cool feature that allows you to use mouse gestures to navigate the web.  Opera seems to have more add-ons than Chrome, but less add-ons than Firefox.

Many website designers have a hard time in designing websites that compatible with all browsers.  In fact, it’s extremely hard to do so as different browsers render websites differently.  This is why some websites look perfect on IEs, but it’s another story when the same websites render with Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and so on.  IE6 and IE7 are somewhat acting on their own rules and not conform to some standard rules that some browsers are following.  IE8 is another story, Microsoft says IE8 plays much nicer than its predecessors by following some standard rules.  To compare different browsers’ behaviors, you can check out browsershots.org.

For anyone who cares about security, it’s best to upgrade to the latest version of the browser that you’re using.  It’s not a bad idea to have more than one browser installed on your computer.  Why?  It’s for appearance and security purposes.  Also, when you get bored with one browser, you have the option of choosing another browser to play with.