All major browser release an updated version for HTML 5. Lately I read few article on IE9 vs firefox 4 vs Chrome 10. Lot of people said lot of things. They did a benchmark test, run complex application on browser and show the difference in speed. Interestingly, in all of those test no one browser came out Standing on top. One browser win one test and second browser win other test. So what does all that mean to me as a internet user? Which browser I use? which browser is safest of all? which browser help my internet navigation habits?
The answer remain complex and in nutshell it is still unanswered. With this post I try to answer it for me. Maybe you find it helpful for you as well. They all are talking about the speed of browser. But what does it mean to me? If a browser loads a web page at 200 millisecond or 300 millisecond, does it make a difference to me? I mean I am not that fast to make difference in 100 milliseconds, even if it took 1 -2 extra second what I am going to loose ? If they talk about Javascript heavy load is faster with new engines, hmm let me check that. does my banking site use javascript, no. Does my email client use javascript, yes google and yahoo does, but in IE 6 or firefox 2-3 they still load in 20-25 secs and that is because my internet speed is that slow, so my browser anyways sit idle. Yet again, I got a bottle neck, my internet connection speed. So a speed doesn’t matter to me since it is been very little difference for a common man to feel it. However to speed up things they use cache which sometime does create problem for me that I have to clear my cache more often then in early days. Ah no body not that difference for me.
My Internet habit includes surfing of website after searching them in google and then opening the page in new tab. I love the more screen area all browser provided, and Firefox does it best of all for me. But I still see no difference at least considerable in my surfing habit because of new navigation structure. However i found it hard to “refresh” pages when they are still loading but got stuck due to my bad internet connection. I have to first stop them and wait a couple of second before old request was canceled and then reassign the new Open request. I miss that “Refresh/ Reload” button a lot. I need it back. Also in new UI, most browser make “Forward and backward” button big but they remove the refresh and reload button, man Website is suppose to visit LINK by LINK and not by move back and forward. When I move back and there was a form submit, it often get me stuck with it. So why they are promoting that back habit ?
Yet again, those new changes comes with some change in habit for making people not follow LINKs but use quick way of loading cached pages. Not a good idea for me.
Another change I note about browser is support for third party tool, hmm this is interesting. now I can share anything with my friends easily. Hey but why I want to share each and everything ? At work I don’t see it make sense at all, infact it is security risk as those 3rd party addon that help share might steal my bank account when I type it. Or maybe they just parse the page for no reason, slowing my slow internet yet again. I better switch those plugins.
On above someone give a note that I might consider the SAFE browser mode then, but hey why I keep switching things? I was on phone and my client want me to check my accounts, shall I ask my client hey wait I have to switch to safe mode first? or I better just type the name and go ahead.
But whatever it is, I am excited to see the growth in browser and love to see it more fruitful in future for me. I am a developer all those make sense for me as developer when I read benchmark reports. But it doesn’t make sense to me when I get involve with web as normal user. My choice of browser is not on what browser can do what, but I now make a habit of having 3-4 browser in my machine. Each one for each purpose. One for game, one for official/bank works and one for searching and surfing. So, I vote for each browser they are all equivalent and are same for me. It is just choice between what color of car you like to drive :).