which is the best browser?

Answer 1

Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source, cross-platform graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and hundreds of volunteers.[1] Started as a fork of the browser component (Navigator) of the Mozilla Application Suite, Firefox has replaced the Mozilla Suite as the Mozilla Foundation's flagship product. Firefox is often abbreviated as FF; officially it is Fx or fx.[2]

Firefox had gained acclaim from numerous media outlets, including Forbes[3] and the Wall Street Journal,[4] even before its 1.0 release on November 9, 2004. With over 25 million downloads in the 99 days after the initial 1.0 release, Firefox became one of the most downloaded free and open source applications, especially among home users.[5] Firefox 2 was released on October 24, 2006 and downloaded over 2 million times within 24 hours.[6]

As of September 2006, Firefox's usage share is around 12% of overall browser usage (see market adoption below), with its highest usage in Germany (about 39% as of July 2006).[7]

The developers of Firefox aim to produce a browser that "just works" for most casual users. User-created extensions and plugins can be installed to integrate with Firefox giving a wide range of choice for the end-user. The main features included with Firefox are tabbed browsing, incremental find, live bookmarking, a customizable download manager and a built-in Search toolbar. The user can customize their version of Firefox with downloadable extensions, a variety of different themes and skins, and many hidden preferences that are easily accessible to the advanced user.

Mozilla Firefox claims support for many software standards, including but not restricted to: HTML, XML, XHTML, CSS, ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM, MathML, DTD, XSL, SVG, XPath and PNG images with variable transparency. Firefox release builds do not yet pass the Acid2 standards-compliance test. There are developmental versions of Firefox that currently pass the Acid2 test, and Firefox 3 is expected to pass Acid2.[25]

Mozilla Firefox is a multi-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, including 98, 98SE, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. It also runs on Mac OS X, and the Linux-based operating systems using the X Window System. Although not officially released for certain operating systems, the freely available source code works for many other operating systems, including but not restricted to: FreeBSD [26], OS/2, Solaris, SkyOS, BeOS and more recently, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.[27]

Firefox also provides an environment in which web developers can use built in tools (from extensions). These include a JavaScript Console, a DOM Inspector, Venkman JavaScript debugger, and an integrated development toolkit called Web Developer [28].

The fact that Firefox has fewer and less severe publicly known unpatched security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer (see Comparison of web browsers) is often cited as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox for improved security.[29][30][31][32] A 2006 Symantec study showed that Firefox had surpassed Internet Explorer in the number of vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities that year through to September, though these were patched more quickly than vulnerabilities found in other browsers.[33] Symantec later clarified their statement, saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities, as counted by security researchers.[34]

Firefox uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers using strong cryptography. It also supports smartcards for secure login to web servers. It uses a sandbox security model and the developers use a "bug bounty" scheme, for finding fixes for some security and feature additions.

Web-surfers have adopted Firefox rapidly, despite the dominance of Internet Explorer in the browser market. Internet Explorer has seen a steady decline of its usage share since Firefox's release. According to several sources (as listed in statistics reference), by July 2006, Firefox had around 12% of global usage share.

Europe, according to a study released by the firm XiTi on 2006-06-16, generally had higher percentages of Firefox use, with an average of 20%.[50]

[] Download count

Downloads have continued at a steady rate since Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004. No other Mozilla Foundation product has experienced such growth.[51]
Despite Firefox's apparent gains on Internet Explorer, Microsoft's head of Australian operations, Steve Vamos, stated that he did not see Firefox as a threat and that there was not significant demand for the featureset of Firefox among Microsoft's users. In contradiction to that statement, many features that previously distinguished Firefox from competitors are now available with Internet Explorer 7 Vamos stated that he himself had never used it.[78] Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has used Firefox, but he has commented "so much software gets downloaded all the time, but do people actually use it?"[79]

A Microsoft SEC filing on June 30, 2005 acknowledged that browsers such as Mozilla are competitive threats to Internet Explorer: "Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products."[80]

In August 2006, Microsoft made an offer to Mozilla to help integrate Firefox with the forthcoming Windows Vista,[81] which Mozilla accepted.[82] Upon the release of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team shipped a cake to Mozilla as a sign of appreciation.[83]

Answer 2

I use Google chrome most of the time, Second best is Firefox Mozilla
The best solution is to have 3 browsers installed on your PC, as unfortunately, even today you can find websites which looks different on different browsers. I even noticed that some of government websites can work only with Internet Explorer (specially if they display some custom software to fill forms), so I use IE if the website is not displayed right on Chrome or Firefox.

Answer 3

Great Question and thank you for participating in Yahoo's Q & A. There are several browsers available, Internet Explorer, Mozilla and others. They all provide equivalent features and protection from hackers, trojans, viruses, adware etc. The most important thing to understand is that Microsoft has not only provided us with our Windows Program but also supplies us with Microsoft Internet Explorer at no charge. The security is awesome simply because no one knows Microsoft's files like Microsoft and no one works constantly to improve their browser like Microsoft, keeping hackers and other malicious problems out of your system. Be sure to get your Microsoft Updates at least once per week to keep yourself free from todays constantly changing problems. I hope this will be helpful. Larry Radio Shack 01-9590

Answer 4

Firefox: for velocity and protection and suited features and upload ons. terrific browser ever and ease itself to apply. IE: is in simple terms too slow and cumbersome and makes use of multiple memory and cpu. Chrome is rapid, yet limited in specific components, like copying and pasting one area of a internet web site, and likewise undeniable text cloth in simple terms on Microsoft Message boards.

Answer 5

Firefox and Opera are the best

United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team:
"There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies related to the IE domain/zone...It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser"
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878

Answer 6

google, Firefox, bing are some of the most used browser.

Answer 7

The speed of Chrome is good then all browsers but there is only one error in chrome that i find problem while installing some add-ons.

Answer 8

Internet Explorer 7

Answer 9

Mozilla Firefox. It has all the features of other browsers including tabbed browsing, themes, extensions etc

Answer 10

Firefox . 100 Marks To Firefox.

Answer 11

Firefox.