Steven Bowen
In the today’s scenario, most of the websites are developed using Html5 and Complex Java coding which requires ultra modern, fast, stable and efficient web browser to open. Looking over the advancement in the technology, it is necessary to bring advanced featured web browsers so that users must have a pleasing experience of the Internet.
We are hereby in this post providing the top ranking browsers which have gained immense popularity among Internet users worldwide. We have enlisted here the top ten web browsers which have a dominant market share and which has won the trust of million of users worldwide. Have a look over the list given below:
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser and is ranked as second or third most widely used browser, according to different estimates. This cross platform web browser is well equipped with several features such as tabbed browsing, spell checking, incremental find, live bookmarking, a download manager, private browsing, location-aware browsing and many more. Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine to display web pages which implements most current web standards and are fully intended to anticipate likely additions to the standards. Firefox version 9.0 is the current release of this browser which was released on December 20, 2011
Mozilla Firefox is getting too much popularity and grand success especially in Germany and Africa with an average usage of 50% and 35% respectively. Initially, released in 2004, it is available in 86 languages and is regarded as one of the best browser available today on the internet, in terms of Security, Interface, Features, Add-on Supports, Services, Wide range of available extensions and performance and so on and so forth. It runs on various operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and many other platforms and well supports several add-ons and extensions.
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Microsoft Internet Explorer also known as Windows Internet Explorer, the default browser for Windows came into existence in 1995, when the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems started. Developed by Microsoft, it is one of the best and most widely used web browser in the world today. The latest version of this browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 which is available as a free update for Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2, constituting with several advanced features with low crashes as compared to preceding versions.
Microsoft Internet Explorer uses the Trident layout engine to display content and well supports HTML 4.01, CSS Level 1, XML 1.0, and DOM Level 1, with minor implementation gaps. Its several version for other operating systems have also been produced, including an embedded OEM version called Pocket Internet Explorer, later rebranded Internet Explorer Mobile.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is one of the fastest and updated web browser which was first of all released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and later on publicly released on December 11, 2008. It is the second most widely used browser with 25.69% worldwide usage share of web browsers gaining extreme popularity in South America. It is one of the most light weight, powerful feature equipped, innovative, user friendly and fast web browser which is updated automatically hence avoiding the hassle of the user’s for upgrading to the latest version.
Google Chrome uses Webkit layout engines based on KHTML and is written in C++, Assembly, Python, and JavaScript language. Developed by Google Inc, this browser is available in 50 languages and is compatible to work with several platforms such as Linux, Mac OS X, Windows etc.
Opera
Opera web browser is one of the best web browser developed by Norwegian Company “Opera” with over 200 million users worldwide which handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading web feeds etc. It is the most popular web browser for mobile phones providing secure and the best web browsing through it’s built-in anti phishing and malware security. Even, most of the mobile phone companies provide Mini Opera as default browser to their users.
Opera Mini is really a fast, safe, secure, speedy web browsers enriched with several great features such as tabbed browsing option, page zooming tool, mouse gestures, built in mail client, powerful extensions support and an integrated download manager utility and so on. It is written in C++ language and is available for several platform such as Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. It uses Presto layout engine for displaying content and is available in 51 languages worldwide.
Safari
Safari is a very fast web browser developed by Apple Inc which is mostly used in the Apple Macbook, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It was first of all released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 for the Mac OS X operating system, and soon it became Apple’s default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3″Panther” including iOS operating systems. As per recent survey result, this browser accounted for 62.17 percent of mobile web browsing traffic and 5.43 percent of desktop traffic in October 2011, giving a combined market share of 8.72 percent.
Safari is regarded as the fourth most popular web browser, next to Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome with 49.59, 21.20 and 16.60 percent of the worldwide usage share of web browsers. Its very fast browsing features, navigational tools and Safari Reader has undoubtedly made it the best web browser for Mac.
Flock
Flock was a popular web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface. The time when it was released, it has gained too much popularity, but further onward when people started supporting Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox instead of Flock browsers, the development of this browser was discontinued in April 2011. Written in C++, XUL, XBL, and JavaScript language, this multi-lingual browser is compatible to work on several platform such as FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X (Intel), and Windows. Earlier version of this browser used Gecko HTML rendering engine to display contents but its version 3 and upward version started WebKit rendering engine.
NetScape Navigator
NetScape Navigator is the the most-widely used browser by the early internet generation, i.e. around 1990’s. Based on the Mosaic browser, Netscape Navigator was very popular in the 1990s. But, further on with the advent of Internet explorer, its usage come to decline in 2002, and thus it was decided to permanently halt development of Netscape Navigator browsers in 2007.
Maxthon
Developed by Maxthon International Limited, Maxthon is a free web browser for Microsoft Windows and Android that supports both the Trident and the WebKit rendering engines. It is geared with top-notch features like Firefox and Chrome and especially you will find it unique because it is a powerful tabbed browser meant for users who are fed up of browser crashes. Generally, in other mainstream browsers, if one tab freezes, it’ll take the whole browser down with it, but in the Maxthon browser, with Maxthon’s isolator technology, a wall is built around each tab that prevents a bad page from freezing the entire browser and ion this way, it gives you a better web experience.
Rockmelt
RockMelt is an open source social media web browser developed by Tim Howes and Eric Vishria, initially released in November 8, 2010 as private beta version but is currently available as public beta version. It is based on Google’s open-source project Chromium and is compatible to work with Windows Mac OS X and iOS operating system. It integrates a technique for surfing the web that focuses on Google Search and Social Media, in particular Facebookand Twitter and comes with a Facebook sidebar in case anyone want to contact any of their Facebook friends directly from the browser. It enables to perform any Facebook related task without leaving the active tab.
Avant
Avant Browser is a freeware web browser based on Internet Explorer enriched with several promising features. Initially released in January 30, 2004, by Avant Force, this web browser is compatible to work with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. This browser unites the Trident layout engine built into Windows with an interface intended to be more feature-rich, flexible and ergonomic than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). The current release of this browser is separated into two editions: first one is the Ultimate edition, which added the Gecko layout engine (used by Mozilla Firefox), allowing the user choose between both layout engines, and Lite edition which contains only the Trident layout engine. It is currently available in 41 languages.
Analysis Of Different Web Browsers
| Browser | 1st Release | Latest Version | Release Date | Windows | Mac | Linux | BSD | Other Unix | JPEG | GIF | PNG |
| Amaya | 14/11/96 | 11/03/01 | 09/12/09 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AOL Explorer | 01/06/05 | 1.5 | 10/05/06 | Yes | No | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | Partial |
| Avant | 01/08/04 | 2012 build 8 | 16/11/11 | Yes | No | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | Partial |
| Camino | 13/02/02 | 2.1 | 29/11/11 | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dillo | 01/12/99 | 3.0.2 | 05/12/11 | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DocZilla | 01/05/03 | 1 | 31/05/03 | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ELinks | 01/12/01 | 0.11.7 | 22/08/09 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Epiphany | 22/12/02 | 03/02/02 | 16/11/11 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Flock | 24/10/05 | 03/06/04 | 03/02/11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Galeon | 01/06/00 | 2.0.7 | 27/09/08 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iCab | 17/02/99 | 4.8a | 18/07/10 | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Internet Explorer | 01/08/95 | 9.0.2 | 11/08/11 | Included | Dropped | No | No | Dropped | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| K-Meleon | 26/11/00 | 01/05/04 | 05/03/10 | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Konqueror | 01/10/00 | 04/07/04 | 07/12/11 | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Links | 24/11/99 | 2.3 | 14/08/11 | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lunascape | 12/09/05 | 06/05/08 | 22/11/11 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ||
| Lynx | 08/07/93 | 2.8.7rel.2 | 21/06/10 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No |
| Maxthon | 11/07/02 | 3.3.1.2000 | 08/12/11 | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Midori | 19/04/09 | 0.4.0 | 02/08/11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Google Chrome | 02/09/08 | 16.0.912.63 | 13/12/11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | |||
| Mozilla Firefox | 23/09/02 | 9 | 20/12/11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Netscape Navigator | 13/10/94 | 4.08 | 09/11/98 | Yes | Partial | No | |||||
| NetSurf | 01/06/02 | 2.8 | 21/09/11 | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OmniWeb | 16/06/05 | 5.11 | 20/06/11 | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Opera | 01/09/96 | 11.6 | 06/12/11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Safari | 07/01/03 | 05/01/02 | 29/11/11 | Yes | Included | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SeaMonkey | 15/09/05 | 2.6 | 20/12/11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shiira | 28/05/04 | 2.3 | 11/08/09 | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sleipnir | 01/06/05 | 02/09/09 | 11-Dec | Yes | Partial | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | Partial |
| WorldWideWeb | 01/12/90 | 0.18 | 14/01/94 | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| w3m | 17/06/05 | 0.5.3 | 15/01/11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
