120x600

Web Browsers
By Joy Stapleton    Printer-friendly version

In 1997, when the Internet was just starting to gain popularity, there were two major browsers to contend with, Internet Explorer and Netscape. Netscape was also gaining popularity for being the fastest browser of the two. The browser war was on, and Microsoft soon succeeded in coming out with a new version of Internet Explorer that was faster than Netscape.

Nowadays there are several browsers for us to contend with. The most popular among them are Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome. Beginning computer users often don't know what a browser is, although most of them seem to know them by name.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is commonly known to be the most vulnerable browser out there, as it's constantly under attack by hackers. That's why Firefox became so popular, but my personal preference happens to be the Opera browser for its lightening speed and simplicity. Dial-up users could really benefit by switching to this browser.

More than just a Web browser, Opera has included additional features such as an IRC Chat, and easy access to your Email and Newsgroup accounts. You'll find these features on the Tools menu. You can setup Opera Mail for Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and any other POP or IMAP account. Email can be composed in either plain text or HTML format, and it includes a built-in spell checker.

If you're an AOL user this is a much easier way to send and receive mail without having to run your AOL application, or having to logon to AOL's Web site. Extensive help files and tutorials are available on Opera's Web site.

If you go to the View menu, select Toolbars, and then select Main Bar, Opera will display a row of icons where with one click you can easily access the Open, Save, Print, and Find functions instead of having to use the more cumbersome drop-down menus.

The Speed Dial feature gives you easy access to the Web sites you use most frequently. When you open a new tab you'll be presented with a grid of nine thumbnail images that you can either click on, or use keyboard shortcuts, for quick access to the corresponding Web site. In the event that the browser crashes, and I've yet to experience this, Opera will restart itself and recover where you left off by restoring all of the tabs that were open. You will also have the option to send them a crash report.

There are quite a few other unique and interesting features that are available in Opera and you'll find a description of them at http://www.opera.com/browser/.


Joy Stapleton started out as a mainframe Programmer/Analyst in 1985. In 1992 she became a PC software developer and PC technician. As a private consultant, Joy provides PC technical services and develops Web sites.