Gamer Mania 2

Sunday, October 16, 2005

The world has voted, and the winner of World Browser 2005 is..........

You need a browser to surf the web, but which one is the best. Originally, everyone used Internet Explorer, because when you thought internet, you thought Internet Explorer. But now there is a whole new world of choices. Out of the many, I decided to take 5 browsers and put them against each other. I will have different categories on which they will win on. My 5 are, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, AOL Explorer, Avant Browser, and Maxthon Browser. All of these browsers are good ones, but lets see which one is the best. First let me talk about some of the browsers. Internet Explorer is definitely one of the most popular. People who don't go on the internet a lot and don't know much about it, use what is provided, which is usually Internet Explorer. The thing is ok looking. Not too pretty though. Pretty much gray. One major problem is that it is really considered old right now. It is currently on version 6.0, but there is NO TAB BROWSING. This is really bad. Pretty much every other browser has tab browsing. Luckily, 7.0 will have tab browsing. I know this because I have played with the Beta a bit. It is acutally pretty nice to see a familar browser being stepped up a level, but c'mon, you need to make it a nicer color. On it you have your basic options. There is some good stuff to it though. Most toolbars out there work or are only for IE, it doesn't freeze a lot, and is pretty basic. So this would be good for basic internet visitors. Next up, Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is one that a lot of people are using now. It has shot up in popularity. Firefox is definitely IE's biggest competitor. Firefox is pretty nice though. It was one of the original browsers to have tab browsing. Of course, it still does, which is excellent. You can change the skin with many different choices. You can make it look sexy in your own way. There are a lot of hacks for it, some basic and easy, some not. It is good to modify it, but you don't know what it can do to it. There are tons of extensions. As Ton said, our favorite is Sessionsaver, which saves all of the web pages you are looking at when you close the browser. This is very helpful. There are some problems/bugs with firefox though. It freezes A LOT. This really interferes with your work. Also, if it freezes and you are expecting sessionsaver to save your work, it doesn't. Pretty much all extensions that are supposed to activate when the browser is open deactivate and start back up. This is not good. Overall Firefox is a really nice browser. Third up to bat is AOL explorer. AOL explorer is the new browser provided free from AOL. This is not the regular AOL dial-up kind of version. This one is much sexier and innovative. It comes with AIM as you download it, and for people that don't have it and do have AIM, AIM asks you sometimes if you would like to download it. That is how I found out about it. So try to read you popups on AIM. Ok, now the description. It has tab browsing, which is now all the rage in browsers. A cool thing it has are little tabs on the side that are Favorites, Channels, History, Beta, and you can set the other ones. These are helpful so you don't have to search through the menu bar or the internet to get what you want. It comes with some kind of spyware blocker thing, but I haven't tried that out yet. This browser is definitely one of the better ones. Avant Browser is next. The Avant browser is one that not many have heard of. I didn't know about it myself until I found and downloaded it. And let me just tell you. IT IS GREAT. Everything is there. It pretty much merges with all of your favorites and stuff from other browsers and puts them in it. There are tons of things you can do with you tabs. There is a switch from this tab to this one button, split to one tab is in a window and the other is in a window and they are under each other all in the same big daddy Avant browser window. There is side-by-side, an annoying one that I have no idea what it is used for, close all tabs button, close one tab button, and of course your basics, minimize, make bigger or smaller, or close. There are all right next to each other. This browser is also pretty shiny. I think it has a certain glow to it. It is a very goooooood browser. The final one is the Maxthon browser which not many people have heard of either. This browser is actually very similar to Avant. It sort of looks like the Avant browser and Internet Explorer combined into one. This one basically does the same thing as Avant. Not much different, except for one thing. When you open it, after it askes you to donate and stuff like that, it has tips. These are useful tips that you can use while searching the net. They teach you some special things you can do with the browser and things like this. They are pretty helpful. Oh wait, one more thing, the Avant and Maxathon browsers ask you to donate everytime you open them. I think there is a way to turn that off but am not sure. Just given a little heads up. Now on to the competition. Lets start off in the sexy category. First will be the swimsuit competition. Wow, Internet Explorer looks great in that little bikini acquippted with thong. Ok, seriously. The sexiest out of all of them is AOL Explorer. This thing is really, really sexy. It is nice and blue (or purple) and shiny. I like shiny browsers. It does show a nice array of colors. Very colorful. In close second comes Mozilla Firefox. I chose this for second because of all you can do with the skins. It can look nice, or bad, you decide. Third is the Avant browser. This browser has a cool symbol, and there are some nice colors on some of the buttons. Nice colors though. It deserves it's third place title. Next for sexiness is the Maxthon browser. This browser is not that pretty. It is pretty dull. Only a few colors grace its window. It is not that nice to look at. There are about 3 colors on it and that is all. Not sexy. The last and least is Intenet Explorer. This is so, bleehhhhhh. Gray. Gray. That is what it is. Gray. So, you get the point. Ok, next category, functionality. Firefox wins. There are so many plug-ins that work in perfect harmony with this browser. AOL Explorer is 2nd because of the sidebar, Internet Explorer 3rd, Maxthon next, and Avant last. Now, the next category, Ease to use. I would probably say, a tie between firefox and Internet Explorer. Firefox is pretty much pressing Ctrl + T and typing in an address. Internet Explorer is typing in an address but pressing Ctrl + N for a new window. So, it is pretty much a combination of buttons. Besides that, they are pretty basic, back, forward, home, stop, refresh, bla, bla, bla. AOL Explorer comes in third because it has a pretty confusing sidebar. Maxthon 4th, and Avant 5th. Avant is pretty hard because of all the buttons. There are the different ways to set it up, there are so many buttons, etc. But you can get used to it pretty fast. Compatability is next. Again a tie between Firefox and Internet Explorer. Lets just say there are so many toolbars and plug-ins that work for both of them. AOL third, Avant 4th, and Maxthon dead last. In customization, Firefox by a landslide. So many hacks, extensions, so many plug-ins, etc. Great stuff. AOL next, followed by Avant, Internet Explorer, and Maxthon. Now for my 2 own categories that I am only doing, starting with sexiest symbol. Avant wins by a great distance. It has a cool blue gem thingy that just looks sexy and shiny. We all like sexy and shiny. Firefox wins second because it has an interestingly unique symbol of a fox that is sort of on fire (thus the name firefox) holding the earth. Interesting. AOL explorer wins third place with it's interesting marble gem thingy. They have recently changed it to a sideways AOL symbol, but they still have the marble in the corner when you open the browser. Internet Explorer wins 4th. It is a lowercase e with a blue ring going around it. Not too sexy. Maxthon is last. It is a weird M just surrounded by blue. Not sexy. Now for my other unique category, SHINYNESS! Avant wins. It has a nice glow when you open it. Very shiny. Avant's symbol is very bluey and gemey, it is so shiny, it makes me want to make up words. AOL explorer takes 2nd because of it's purple. Shiny! Firefox next because of it's shiny skins. My favorite is iFox and Silver Skin. Those are both good. Maxthon third, and IE dead last. Not shiny. Gray. Ok, now what you have been waiting for. The best browser of 2005 is....... Avant!!!!!!! The shinyness and ways to arrange your tabs are great. Firefox lost by .1 point. The cool stuff you can do with that are great. AOL explorer 3rd, because of the shinyness and great stuff, and Maxthon and Internet Explorer tied for last with bad stuff. So, remember, this is my opinion. I am not biased. I like all of these browsers. So try to use all of them. They are good.

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