Browsing Web Browsers

In the past I have taken great pride in informing you, my readers, about new and cutting edge technology. Sometimes it is also necessary to reexamine existing or older technologies. This revisit can expose ways to provide the maximum degree of benefit for your particular situation by making a few tweaks. This week we are going to look at web browsers, the unsung workhorse of the Internet.
Part of the reason why web browsers are unsung is because many purveyors of the Internet don’t understand them or recognize them. Simply put, web browsers are programs that interpret or translate web pages. This means that they take web pages from the code that they are comprised of, and convert them to the collection of electronic documents that have usurped so much of our time. Some of the leaders in the web browser market are Internet Explorer and Netscape respectively. They have held such a dominant position among web browsers mainly because they have an established history in the genre. Internet Explorer can attribute its success to among all things, being a team player.
The majority of computers that were sold doing the Internet boom of the 1990’s had Microsoft Windows for an Operating System. The resident web browser was Internet Explorer. You factor in that we are generally creatures of habit, then it is easy to see how many users prefer Internet Explorer to other web browsers. Once someone has developed a rapport and a degree of familiarity with a program it is difficult for them to be pleasantly weaned from it. This is what other web browsers like Netscape faced.
In one sense, web browsers are like televisions. There are many different brands and features, but they all show the same programs. Aside from Internet Explorer and Netscape, other web browsers of note are Opera and Mozilla. Believe it or not, many computer users are unaware that more than one web browser can occupy the same computer at the same time. You can have multiple web browsers on your computer and not debunk any of the known laws of physics.
So now that fears of unraveling the fabric of the universe have been subdued, lets explore other ways to find the right browser for you. Once you have found a browser that you find agreeable you can begin to customize it. There are certain things that you can do put your own stamp on your computers web browser. These customization features can include anything from blocking certain web sites to the icons that are displayed, and more. There are alternate web browsers for virtually every operating system. The coup de grace is that web browsers are generally free, so you only need to download and customize. I have listed a few sites with free web browsers to get you stared. Remember,
I don’t just advise, I inform.
www.mozilla.org
www.crazybrowser.com
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net
http://www.konqueror.org (note: this is for Linux and Unix Operating systems)
www.avantbrowser.com
www.opera.com