Browsers and Internet Explorer Explained
Internet Explorer is the program that many use to surf the web, among other things. It is called a browser and is used to interact on the Internet. Whatever program you use the opens pages of the Internet and lets you explore the world wide web and Internet is your browser. That was easy, what is not is all the different things in your browser and what they all are. There are a lot of tools to help make your browsing easier but many people don’t like the ones that Microsoft has used or how they use them.
There are many different browsers that you can use instead of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Some are very popular and some will cost you some money to use. The most used browsers are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Avant. There are some others but for now i’ll explain some of the advantages of these and if you want, you can check out any of the others.
One questions some may have is why would I want to use any other browser than the one that came with Windows. Wouldn’t that one be the best? Not necessarily, Windows is a big company and they have a broad range of products that they are selling. They have a lot of people that work there and work hard to improve their products but they have gotten so big that sometimes they don’t always hear peoples complaints or wishes. Smaller companies are more apt to want to listen to people and try to improve their products as this is what will keep them in business.
Now don’t get me wrong, Microsoft is a great company and does try to listen to peoples complaints and suggestions, it’s just that because of the size of the company, they may not get to hear all the suggestions people give. I do like Microsoft and my hats off to Bill Gates for all his wonderful donations to charities and the community. Like computers he donates along with money to set them up in computer labs in local libraries across the country, billions of dollars worth.
That said we’ll move on to browsers and the different kinds. I am currently using Avant, much to my wife’s dismay. I say this because she is a hard and fast user of Internet Explorer, or IE, and doesn’t really like to change. She likes to get comfortable with one program and stick with that, whereas I like to find the one that gives me the most to offer in help and little toys of browsing. Avant has some very nice customizable features that help and make browsing easier. One feature I like is the tools menu, there are all kinds of tools available from the drop down menus instead of from the tools options screen like on IE. From here on I’ll use IE for Internet Explorer.
Drops down menus are nice and quick to use, in IE you have to go to the options screen to change many settings. In Avant you have the options in a drop down menu from your toolbar, quick and easy. There is also a tool on the drop downs called clear records, it erases all records of whatever you like. Such as browser history, temporary files, blocked ads and many more. This is a one stop erasing of files you don’t need to save on your computer.
Another feature that I like is when you close windows the main browser doesn’t close. You can close individual windows and keep the browser open, unless you hit that x in the corner. There is a better management of opened and current windows that let’s you keep the different windows open and allows you better customization for searching the Internet using multiple windows.
Any bookmarks you have on your IE will be on your Avant because they use the same basic program, just changed with some added stuff. I like the choices of blocking different types of things from the drop down menus instead of having to go through multiple windows to get to the settings. If I’m trying to download some flash movies for web site design, I don’t have to go through hoops to allow the browser to download them. All the different blocked settings are a drop down menu away.
There is a setting to allow you to use Google and Yahoo as your search engine along with ad and pop up blockers automatically running all the time. This means no annoying banners, pop ups or flash ads playing unless you visit some very unsavory sites that keep changing how their ads work.
Avant Browser uses the IE engine but has added tools and such to make it better. It is free, yeah, and is very easy to set up. You can read more here and download the browser for free: http://www.avantbrowser.com/
Another free browser is Opera. I have used it but there are some things that I like better about Avant, and so I switched. Some things that are nice about Opera are the Email client with spam blocker and add blockers. There is news feed and chat support just like IE so you can get your favorite news live and chat with friends over many of the instant chat programs. Opera has some special features for users with disabilities and the usual security features. For more information on Opera you can go here: http://www.opera.com/
One of the biggest browsers other than IE is Mozilla Firefox. It has the usual features of searching using Google, security, pop up blockers and easy toolbar creation using drag and drop of icons. Mozilla has been a close contender of Internet Explorer for years as they have listened to the complaints of IE users and tried to answer those problems.
The security features are probably the best out there and they have taken great strides to use helpful and truly useful tools and features. One of the nicest features is the use of less resources on your computer while using multiple windows, less taxing on your computers memory and CPU.
Firefox also has a tag along mail client that offers a wide range of security and anti spam features. These programs are free for download but you can also pay for a CD to be shipped to you for a nominal fee. You can finds out more about the Firefox web browser here: http://www.mozilla.org/
All these browsers are free, they are trying to offer people an alternative to the standard fare of the Internet Explorer browser and do a better job at it than Microsoft. They make their money by adding things for sale on their sites like advanced security suites or added items like Mozilla,s t-shirts and backpacks. Many of these companies offer a standard program that you can use for free for individuals, but offer multiple users like businesses for sale. This means us single users can use the programs for free while a business or school has to pay for the use of many copies of them.
There is an alternative to Internet Explorer and many are free and easy to use. They are simple with the common household user in mind. Many features are easily explained, used and can make your web browsing experience more enjoyable and hassle free.
