What Do You Use Your Browser For?

Are you getting the most out of your browsing experience?

Probably not.

I know you aren’t if you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7.

Most people don’t realize that they have a choice when it comes to browsing the web. I am here to enlighten you otherwise. I even have a few recommendations, based on what you surf most often.

Popular Available Browsers

First, let’s list your choices and where you can find them.

• Internet Explorer (built in on Windows machines)
• FireFox
• Flock
• Opera
• Safari
• Chrome

Each browser has it’s little quirks and things it does better than others. All of them are free to use. Internet Explorer comes *pre-loaded* on your operating system (Windows only), but doesn’t have to be the *default* browser you use.

Power Shopper or Surfer?

Do you visit sites like Google, eBay or Amazon where you need to compare items, see lists and visit each page on a list? Then Firefox or Opera is the browser for you.

Each allows you to surf to a list page, then right click and open each link you want to explore more, in a new Tab. They offer features like saving all open tabs at once, and restoring a *session* later. If you haven’t tried it, tabbed browsing takes your browsing experience to a whole new level.

Sample Usage

• Go to Google (or eBay or Amazon) and type in a search term and tap Enter.
• Go down the list right-clicking on each link you want to explore and select Open in New Tab
• When you have 10-12 tabs open, click the Tab headers and start browsing.

The new links opened within the same browser window, so you don’t have 10 copies of FireFox or Opera open. You can quickly switch between tabs to review and compare.

Web Developer or Blog Theme Creator or Editor?

Are you developing websites, editing blog themes or otherwise engaged in web page development? Then there’s no question, FireFox is the browser for you.

The add-on capabilities with FireFox are unmatched with any other browser. You can add *features* to FireFox for seeing the CSS that a web page uses, disable it, expand on it or review the elements on a page. You can take a peek into the HTML or CSS live on any site. You can change something interactively and see what effect it would have if you made that change.

I use FireBug extensively when tweaking a blog theme or testing a new web page.

Visit Javascript Heavy Sites?

Then Firefox or Safari 4 should be loaded on your computer. Javascript heavy sites include sites like YouTube, Amazon, iStockPhoto, UltraShock, most photo galleries and Ajax enabled blogs.

Safari boasts the fastest javascript rendering engine out there, with Firefox a close second.

Social Media More Your Thing?

If you spend a lot of time surfing the social media sites like Twitter, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Facebook and the like, then you are going to love Flock. Your social media login’s are built right in so you can quickly Tweet a page you found, or update your Facebook status on the fly. Send a URL to your Digg profile or see what your friends are upto in real time.

And if you blog as well, you can use Flock’s built in feature to copy something you found on the web and blog about it in a couple of clicks, without ever logging into your blog.

Flock is built on the FireFox engine, so most of the add-on’s available for FireFox, are ALSO available for Flock.

I found a video by Ed Dale (of Thirty Day Challenge fame) showing off the Flock Browser. Want to see the power of Flock (and the FireFox engine it’s built on), just watch below.

Run Them All

And, if you are like me, and do a little of all of that, then load them all, and open/use as needed. I pick the browser I use for the task at hand. Tweaking my blog theme, FireFox it is. Just reading online books or searching for technical information references, then I open Safari. Going to spend time on Twitter, then again, it’s FireFox (because of the Power Twitter Add On), but if I want to socialize across the web, I open Flock.

I even have Flock, FireFox and Safari all open at the same time! And for a quick fix to a little memory problem that Firefox has, check out my article on tweaking FireFox’s Memory Configuration.

Still chugging along on the default browser that came with your computer? Come, explore the world of power browser and Enhance Your Browsing Experience.

About The Author

Cenay Nailor is an Internet, Affiliate and Networking Marketing success coach with mad technical skills she loves sharing. Visit her blog and sign up for a weekly injection of Tech-Based Marketing help, sent right to your inbox. http://www.CenayNailor.com

About The Author

Dali Burgado, also known as "The Dali Blogger" teaches creative entrepreneurs how to carve a web presence that connects with their Inner Guru and their target audience. Her first online marketing love is SEO. She's an avid connector on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. When she's not coaching or teaching, she's tweaking sites for Search Engine Visibility, working on her PHP and Javascript coding skills, Singing Opera, or learning about gardening. Circle Dali on Google+