February 07, 2007
Browse Happy
Web browsers have come a long way in terms of features, functionality and speed. It wasn’t that long ago that us web monkeys were hammering away at our keyboards uttering frequent cries in desperation because we found ourselves in the middle of heated browser wars.
Those days seem over now. Most modern browsers support at least the most basic web standards (HTML4.01/CSS1). Of course we are still eagerly awaiting the day on which full support of XHTML/CSS2 will be the norm, rather than the exception.
Why should people care? After all, they just want to access the information websites have to offer. Well… It would make our job so much easier if everyone were to use browsers with full web standards support. That would enable us to create websites that are:
- highly functional
- much easier to use
- better looking
- faster loading
- cheaper to create & maintain
- more accessible for people using speech readers
- helping the web evolve (opening up many more opportunities for web users)
Because of its poor support for web standards I have long wished for web users to drop Internet Explorer in favour of better alternatives. Two of my favourite (free) browsers that stand out as healthy alternatives are Opera and FireFox. Both of them are far superior to Internet Explorer in many ways, including:
- security: they are not tightly integrated with Windows (“I prefer browsing with my browser rather than my Operating System”)
- usability & features: they allow you to customise your browsing experience and include (optional) useful extentions
- speed and performance
Still not convinced? Check out the following: