Main contenders: IE8, (IE stands for Internet Explorer for non internet speak people), Firefox, Safari 3.2.3 and the newest addition to the group, Google Chrome/Chromium.
Now for the sake of this article, i am going to talk current versions of the browsers. For IE, this is self explanatory but for Firefox, i am talking 3.0.10 and for Google Chrome, version 1.0.x.
So, without further addoo, here is the order that (i think) the browsers are in order (best first)
1: Firefox 3.0.10
The king of all browsers: Firefox. With its huge development team for extensions (everyone and anyone) and its open source base, it is a perfect browser, being updated all the time with speed boosts and new features. The next full version, 3.5, is currently in beta promising huge speed boosts, a new private browsing mode (similar to Chromes Incognito Mode and IE8's InPrivate mode and a faster start up time.Bad points: Sucks away your RAM and is bad for SSD's, cause it is constant read-write to the drive as opposed to other browsers which run mostly in RAM.
You can get the latest version of Firefox here.
2: Google Chrome/Chromium
Google Chrome entered the market of browsers not so long ago, but it is already one of the best browsers around. It also has a very promising future, bringing extensions. Because it is new and based on Webkit, it is a very fast loader of pages full of interactive content. The clean interface also allows even internet newbies to make bookmarks and use tabs instead of windows. The single process for a tab system, which i believe is being picked up by Firefox soon too, is a very robust system too and allows for use of the browser even if one of your internet pages manages to crash, you can continue use in another tab.Bad points: It's lack of extensions puts it right down the list for me, but the clean user interface and fast loading times bring it further up the list than Safari and IE8.
You can get the latest stable version of Chrome here, and you can follow Chromium (the open source version) here.
Edit: Google Chrome has been upgraded to 2.0. Links above.
3: Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer controls most of the internet share. This is only because of the standard built in nature of it in all windows systems. However, it is still a good browser, not to be forgotten about at the moment.Internet Explorer is now famous in the web industry for being annoying. This, however is not because of IE8. Standards that web designers must comply to include being compatible with IE6. This is annoying as it takes extra time and effort to make an IE6 compatible version of the site. But, the latest reincarnation is a wonder for internet browsing. It is based on WebKit, so it is fast. It is also built to be fast. However, it is closed source and so takes a lot longer to produce extensions that cannot be fully integrated into the browser unlike Firefox. It also takes quite a while to load up.
Main page here, downloads available here.
4: Safari 2.3.2
Safari was the first browser to be based on WebKit, as it was built by Apple. It has also been the most innovative, using tabs and the like first in a mainstream browser. However, it lacks any sort of extensions and has quite a dull interface that could be difficult for first time users to get used to. However, Safari 4 is promising with lots of visual features. However, this order is based on current browsers.Windows version available here, Leopard available here and Tiger available here.
This is my roundup of all the mainstream browsers at the moment. However, there are plenty of betas out too.
Chromium
Safari 4
Firefox 3.5
These are all massive improvements over their predecessors, however should be used with care. While i believe that Firefox and Safari 4 betas are fine for everyday use at the moment, Chromium development is still in early days and so maybe shouldn't, as it is unstable and could have multiple security problems.
There is that space on the far left of my Windows 7 Taskbar reserved for my browser. While at the moment it is Firefox 3.0.10, it could easily be replaced with Safri 4 Beta or Chrome, as they both fantastic browsers. Chromium is also very promising in the future. Leave thoughts below :)
