Chromed!

Reluctantly made the switch to  Google Chrome a few months ago due to my work.  Chrome's browsing speed is  indeed the fastest I've observed compared to the other browsers I've used.

The interface may not be so "eye-candy" but its simplicity, speed and organized functions such as "Inspect element" feature would surely appeal to web and IT professionals for it makes it easier to view technical details on websites.

You might be surprised why I mentioned I was reluctant for I became too comfortable with Firefox and my usual plugins until I experienced extreme cursor lags within the browsing window while working and hence made the switch.  I'm thinking Flash applications may not load very well in Firefox as Chrome does.  Also, Firefox does take longer to start up.  However one of the good things with Firefox is being able to install plugins to customize or add more features to your browser.

Two plugins I highly recommend would be

  Ad Block Plus -blocks text and image ads
and

No Script blocks/gets your permission first before loading active scripts, great for protecting your PC from sites that automatically install stuff without your knowledge or automatically loading flash ads/videos

I'm happy to recently find out that the Chrome's  developers base had grown and more extensions (equivalent to plugins in Firefox ) are now available.  I remember being frustrated when there was no way to block ads in Chrome  previously however not surprising since major revenues come from Google Ads.  I'm not sure which of these ad blocker extensions work but I do hope they work as good as what's available in Firefox.  Another thing noticeable is that installing the extensions are also fast!

There are other browsers available, some of which I've tried a long time ago were Safari and Opera.

For me, Safari's good points was that it optimizes the browser text, slightly making the text heavier for easy reading.  Text fields are also outlined with a light blue glow to easily know where to type your username and password.  Scrolling was also smooth and recently they added the "3d Apple feel" features on their browser.

 

Though I liked Safari's browsing speed, it was buggy in its initial stages and often crashed when accessing some websites and never went back to using it since then.

I came to know and have been using Opera since my secondary school days when IRC Chat was still popular for Opera was really a comprehensive and intuitive browser that had a built in Email application, IRC chat and auto-fill assistance.  It also had a button to quickly switch into browsing with text only or load in full which is very useful for dial-up users.  However I think this browser is more popular in European countries.  I wonder what other features it has now for it has been years since I used this.

And sorry, I won't bother with Internet Explorer.

My personal rankings according to the following:

Browsing Speed:

1. Chrome
2. Safari
3. Firefox
4. Opera

Eye Candy

1. Safari
2. Opera
3. Firefox
4. Chrome

Comprehensive features

1. Opera
2. Firefox
3. Chrome
4. Safari

Customizing

1. Firefox
2. Chrome
3. Opera
4. Safari

And that's it for today with my first nerdy post. Lol and currently using Chrome