A tale of four browsers

Tn recent weeks, a lot has been happening on the Web application and Web-based application front. In Browser nagri, Firefox 3 (FF3) finally made its debut after three betas and release candidates. Was it worth the wait? I give the browser two thumbs up.

Bookmarking’s a breeze

Perhaps the nicest thing about FF3 is that it makes bookmarking a breeze and, what’s more important, lets you search your bookmarks and all the links that you’ve visited in the last three months by typing keywords in the browser address bar. Bookmarking just requires you to click the Star in the address bar, it’s as simple as starring a message in Gmail.

Bookmark management is better in FF3 as well. You can search bookmarks from the sidebar, which is nice. What’s nicer is that Undo finally works in the bookmark sidebar. In previous versions deleting a bookmark meant that it was gone with the wind. Now you can click CTRL+Z and resurrect accidently deleted bookmarks.

Backing up bookmarks is easier than ever. FF3 automatically backs up your bookmarks every day and you can restore them from the Organize Bookmarks dialog or if you want to keep a copy of your bookmarks in a separate location then you can manually backup your bookmarks with a couple of clicks and FF3 creates a json file that contains your bookmarks. You can copy this file to a backup device and restore your bookmarks from it in case your PC melts down.

Faster, less memory hungry

Performance improvements abound. Using AJAX-fuelled sites like Gmail has never been faster. Things that used to have a perceptible lag—refreshing your inbox, for instance—happen so quickly that blink and you'll miss it.

The browser is not a memory hog unlike FF2. Its memory usage is comparable to Internet Explorer 7 which, considering that the latter is part of Windows and tightly integrated into the OS, is not bad at all.

Tighter integration with the underlying OS

Browser integration with the OS has improved, at least on Windows. On both XP and Vista, FF3 fits in better. The use of Vista’s default font and subtle improvements in the speed of menu display etc. all make for a smoother browsing experience. The back button on the default theme’s bigger than the forward button. As the back button is the one that gets the most clicks, this makes sense.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to extend to third-party themes. I like to use Qute, which has been a

popular theme from the FF1 days, and while there is a FF3 version, it does not support this UI change, which is a pity. The browser shows you information about ongoing downloads in the status bar telling you how many files are being downloaded and how long it’s likely to take. This may not be a showstopper, but it is very nice indeed.

That concludes my report on FF3. What of the other alternative browsers including Apple’s massively hyped Safari and Opera?

I tried Safari 3.1 and was sorely disappointed. Font rendering on Safari sucks rocks. This is probably because it’s based on the Konqueror engine (part of KDE, a GUI environment that’s very popular on Linux). Linux font rendering, as I have written before, is god-awful and Safari brings this visual monstrosity to Windows.

Opera is better than Safari, lots, heaps. I like the mobile version but have never found the desktop edition

particularly compelling. Perhaps it is because that Opera tries so hard to be cross-platform that it never fits well into Windows. Font rendering is again, a bit off though not as badly as in Safari. Fonts look a little smaller and slightly, very slightly, ragged. The browser is feature-loaded but unlike FF or IE where the features are there when you need them but otherwise tucked away neatly, in Opera the features are right up front and in your face.

What of Internet Explorer? The old reliable is looking a little long in the tooth. It’s been a long while since IE 7 came out which itself came out long after IE 6. IE 8 is in beta and Microsoft only knows when it’ll be out. Till then, FF3 is the king of the browser hill. Get it today!

prashant.rao@expressindia.com