Did you know that there are other browsers that you can use to surf the web aside from the default Microsoft Edge or Safari that come pre-loaded on your computer?
Sounds like a silly question, but plenty of people stick to the default browser, either not knowing that they have other (better) options or not caring enough to download a different one.
Here’s a quick look at the main players in the *Which Web Browser is Best?* game:
Chrome
Google Chrome sits atop most every ‘best browser’ list on the web. The Melbourne SEO specialists and web designers at Rock Solid Marketing aren’t apt to disagree here.
True to Google, Chrome is about as simplistic as Google’s search engine and doesn’t clog the window or navbar with too many extra features. It does, however, flaunt an extensive extensions library (see what we did there?).
And perhaps most importantly, it offers integration with Google’s services across multiple devices. What this means is that if you’re signed into your Google account on both your mobile and your desktop, your search history, bookmarks, passwords, open tabs, and other settings will sync between devices and browser windows as you use Chrome. Web browsing couldn’t get much easier!
There is, however, one oh-so-slight negative to using Chrome: it tends to use up a lot of memory while running. This won’t be much of an issue if your computer has plenty of RAM installed, but if it doesn’t then Chrome may slow it down.
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox has been around for quite awhile and still remains one of the best web browsers out there. It’s updated frequently, has heaps of extensions available, and boasts more privacy than Google Chrome offers.
So why isn’t Firefox considered the best browser out there? Well, Chrome has it beat in terms of speed and mobile integration, two of the most important user specifications. What’s more, you need to sign up for a Firefox account in order to sync data and settings between devices, which is a bit annoying. If you already have a Google account, you might as well use Chrome instead.
However, if for some reason you often use older web apps (such as at your workplace), it might be worth using Firefox: as it’s been around longer than most other browsers, some of the older apps were built to run on Firefox and haven’t been updated to play nicely with other newer browsers.
Opera
Though only about 1% of web users are using Opera as their web browser, we feel that it’s a quality contender for the honour of Best Web Browser. Quite frankly, we’re not sure why this browser is so underrated.
Opera is similar to Chome and is actually capable of running many Chrome extensions. In fact, it actually has Chrome (and Firefox) beat in a couple of key ways:
First, Opera is the best web browser to use if you’re on a slow internet connection. Its ‘Opera Turbo’ feature compresses web traffic and reroutes it through Opera’s servers, which can equate to faster web page loading time. And second, Opera boasts some unique built-in features like an ad blocker and a ‘Stash’ for saving pages to read later.
Though it’s not one of the more popular web browsers out there, we highly recommend downloading Opera and giving it a whirl!