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Gateways to the internet
BROWSERS have come a long way since Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina from the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications wrote a programme and later launched Mosaic in early 1990s.
Today, there are numerous digital surfboard sources supporting web standards, scripting languages, common proprietary plug-ins and even non standard web pages, available to download from the net. But only a few users in Pakistan move beyond Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. Hardly any internet fan exercises choices for diverse browsing experience.
Web browser — gateway to the internet — is the software used to access the World Wide Web, the graphical portion of the Internet. It is one piece of software that every desktop needs to have in order to take advantage of the intranet. Easy to use point and click interface of browsers helps millions to explore different corners of the internet and browsing has become one of the hottest fields of activities online.
Netscape Navigator (Netscape) and Mosaic were already there serving the growing market to read the documents from other computers during dotcom boom days when Microsoft released Windows 95 operating system in which a Web browser called Internet Explorer (Explorer) was embedded. Opera joined a year later and then on there is a cut throat competition (some time dubbed as browsers’ battle) between big developers (like AOL and Microsoft) for market share. Home page of any browser gives a fair idea of what the products are offering to attract attention of the users.
Mozilla was the previous name of the browser that became Netscape Navigator when it was first launched a year earlier to Explorer. Netscape is a fast, full featured browser that meet the web standards, and is portable to various systems from Windows to Mac to Linux (it comes as a part of Linux) to name a few. Netscape remained as the most popular browser until Microsoft appreciated the growing threat to its monopoly and started centralizing Windows word more and more on Explorer to challenge Netscape.
Mozilla, now independent of AOL support, is a powerful browser in use. It has a familiar feel for Netscape users though its beast shaped logo is curiously different. It is quick, stable, and almost free of the default links to manufacturers’ product lines that figure out very noticeably in most other browsers. Its developers aim it at companies wanting a browser to put in their own products but it can be equally useful for common users.
When it comes to Pakistani users, Explorer is omnipresent. Local users are familiar with Explorer more than any other browser. Reasons: It comes as a part of Microsoft’s Windows operating system that is used universally here.
Explorer has the same autonomy as Netscape and there are more similarities between the two than differences. Explorer includes features that simplify common as well as complex browsing tasks. The Explorer navigates the web, saves, and prints Web pages efficiently. Microsoft has made user interface simpler by adding bars, buttons and wide array of user friendly features. It has customizable layout. Common Explorer users are happy to email on the web or blog or browse what ever they want to without using the advance features many of which keep working behind the scene. Only a few are familiar with all the features of the browser they are found using every day hence are not taking full advantage. Explorer is a most widely used browser not only here but all over the world, reported security fixes and display bugs notwithstanding.
Apple created Safari so that they could replace Explorer with something of their own. Now Safari comes as a part of Mac OS X and Microsoft no more developing newer versions of Explorer for the Mac OS. It is fast, it is standards compliant, and includes the kind of usability features that Apple is known for. Camino (formerly known as Chimera) and iCab are also for Mac OS that focus on some little details of usability rather than trying to do totally everything. OmniWeb is available only for the new Mac operating system OS X (that is 10, not X). Reviewers and some users believe that OmniWeb is fast (possibly the fastest Web browser for any operating system) and has pleasant looks. It is easy to use too. But in Pakistan only a small number is using Macintosh so one cannot foresee any market for any Mac browsers in near future.
Opera browser was developed by a team of researchers at the Norwegian telecommunication company in 1994. It is leaner and faster than Netscape or Explorer and offers some handy features that the others did not include, like navigating without the mouse, or opening multiple windows and arranging them on screen without running multiple copies of the program. It runs well on lot of operating systems and is available either in a free advertiser supported version or in an ad free paid version.
Galeon browser uses the open source Mozilla page rendering engine but the user interface is faster, and simplified for web browsing alone. MyIE2 installs on top of Explorer for Windows and adds a couple of its own unique features. One of the more interesting features is mouse gestures, which is a new user interface concept that is starting to get attention: you click the right mouse button, and then move the mouse to the left, or up and down, or down and to the right. The browser interprets that as a command such as next, reload, or close tab. So many others can be found online.
But why would anyone want to change a browser particularly when utility is fundamentally restricted to the same set of buttons (back, forward, stop, refresh, and home) and the same interface? Also, even free download is time consuming, and installation and configuration requires at least some tech know how. What do browsers like Opera or Mozilla offer that Explorer or Netscape does not? For a start, there is a world beyond the famous browsers.
Changing browser is a matter of personal preference — good enough a reason to switch from one to another browser or having more than one browser on hand. Every browser has some thing unique to offer to its users. Moreover, widely used browsers like Explorer and Netscape are more subject to attacks and vulnerable to crashes. These, associated with fame and ever growing bug list force repeated upgrades and patches. Browsers like Opera and Mozilla fare better on bug free installations and fixes and their bugs are usually released much faster. Mozilla and Opera are faster.
If there is one matter of greater worry to users than pop ups, it is a lack of privacy. Of course, there are hosts of software that claim to guard privacy, but for most users, they are too difficult to configure and use or buy in the firs place. Opera even has a Quick Preferences drop down menu that allows users to set various levels of privacy in less than three clicks. And, annoying trend towards web sites designed only for specific browsers and ignoring others is already fading yet users may come across some obscure corner they want to read that requires a particular browser.
Recommendation: deploy more than one browsers, experience the difference and find out which one serves the browsing needs better. Every browser has world of its own that need to be explored.
The writer
Top tricks for smooth surfing
AS with most software, there is more than one way to accomplish a task. Here are a few useful features to help you navigate:
Quick revisit: As you hop from page to page and website to website, your browser remembers where you've been. With Navigator, select History from the drop-down list under the Communicator menu. With Internet Explorer, click the History button on the toolbar. There you'll find a list of all the web pages you have visited during a specified period of time. To revisit a page, just click on the address. Another way to move between pages is by clicking the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will appear and you can choose to move forward or back.
Download speed-up: While text downloads quickly, images can really slow things down. There are two ways to speed things up. Since text appears first, after it loads, click the Stop button. The images won't appear, but should you want to look at an image, use the right mouse button to click on the image icon, then select View Image. Also view websites in text-only mode by turning off the auto-loading of images function under the Options menu.
Cache size increase: Files you download are stored in a cache on your hard drive so when you return to a site, you don't have to download the files again from the server, just access them locally from your cache. After a while though, the cache becomes full. Your web browser automatically deletes old files as you continue to surf the web. But if you visit many of the same sites regularly, you can speed up access by caching more of them. To do this, increase the size of your cache. Ten Mb is optimal. If you use Netscape Navigator 4.0 or a later release, go to Edit menu —> Preferences, —> Advanced —> Cache. Increase the cache size.
With Explorer 5.0 or later, under the Tools menu, select Internet Options. Next, on the General tab, click on Settings. Use the slider to increase the cache.
Saving keystrokes: Web addresses or URLs can be unwieldy. Worse, if you type them wrong, you get an error message. To avoid these problems, save the addresses of sites you want to revisit.
Find: Once you've accessed a web page, use the Find feature to quickly locate a particular term that interests. Why take the time to scroll through the entire document?
Use two search engines: The difficulty of finding specific information is by far the biggest complaint we hear. Of dozens of search engines available, pick two, then take the time to learn them well. Top choices: Yahoo! and Google.
Choosing home page: Both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer set their respective sites as the default home page when you launch your web browser. If you want to begin your surfing by reading a daily newspaper?
Opening new window: While you are downloading one web page, you can access another by opening a second browser window. With Navigator, go to the File menu —> New —> Navigator Window. With Internet Explorer under the File menu select New, then Window .
A word of caution: Although you can open multiple windows, this will slow down your computer, so don't go overboard. Remember to close the additional windows to free up disk space. Surf during off-peak hours. If you want to avoid the slowdown, go online in the morning or late at night, when traffic is lighter.
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