Tech Talker compares all the Internet browsers in 2016 to weigh the pros and cons.
To begin with … if you’re using an Apple operating system your default browser will be Safari. If you’re using a windows computer your default browser will be Internet Explorer. These browsers will allow you to browse the internet but the other browsers I’ll mention here are jam packed with more features than either of these default browsers.
Safari
If you have any Apple device, it will come with the Safari browser. It does a good job with power savings, and keeping things synced between your iOS devices and your computer. Everything works extremely well if everything you own is in the Apple ecosystem of devices. It’s been proven to manage battery life better on Apple laptops.
If you’re a rock solid Apple user or you’re trying to eek all of the battery life you can out of you MacBook, using Safari is most likely going to be the way to go. It makes sense that a browser designed by the creators of the device would be the most efficient.
Internet Explorer (Edge)
If you’re a Windows user, you should only use Internet Explorer once. That one time should be to install another web browser. That may sound harsh, but Microsoft has fallen far behind in performance, security, and features. Microsoft has acknowledged this and scrapped Internet Explorer and replaced it with their new browser Edge. This browser is coming stock on Windows 10, with some new improvements such as support for extensions. Time will tell how this browser fairs, but I’d recommend not using it as your primary browser!
The Alternatives
There are three main alternatives to the stock browsers that come with your devices: Firefox, Chrome, and Opera. The two main competitors are Firefox and Chrome, but Opera has a pretty great feature I’ll mention later. Alternative browsers are used frequently due to the amount of features, updates, and security that each of them exhibit. Firefox and Chrome both have support for plug ins, which are basically third party programs that add extra functionality to the browser.
Currently my web browser is running an Evernote, Google Translate, and LastPass extensions. They are awesome because you can use Evernote to clip and save things you are viewing straight into Evernote. Google Translate will automatically translate any foreign webpages and LastPass stores all of my passwords. Both Firefox and Chrome are capable of running these extensions, and they have a zillion more that are built for pretty much anything you can think of.
