Browsing Through Browser Advice

There are two sides to every problem. And just like any other line of work, Keystone employees are often asked which Browser they “endorse.” Preferred Browser differs person to person; it’s just opinion. It’s like asking your doctor which brand of cough medicine is best. One might treat the coughing better; another might treat the ache in your throat better. Different Browsers are better at different aspects of the Internet and your computer. But what do the experts at Keystone think?

Before we get into specifics, it is important to know that Keystone is made up of two distinct branches – the Computer Networking side and the Web Design side. Our networking guys will always take a more technical approach that will be the best solution for a hardware problem. The design team likes innovation, speed, and creativity. In general, the design side prefers Mozilla Firefox and the networking side prefers Internet Explorer.

One of our Network and Systems Administrators, Adam Arnold, names Internet Explorer as his Browser of choice. He claims IE is the best because it “properly integrates with all Microsoft products and allows you to utilize all Microsoft resources within our network.” When I talked to the networking team they each said something similar. Internet Explorer is also preferred because of its speedy search results and long list of accelerators. The accelerators can be used when you highlight some text and click on the small arrow that appears. IE provides a long list of fast links to other web pages where you might use that text, like highlighting the phrase “Hendersonville, TN” and then getting a map of the area. These are only a few of the advantages named with Internet Explorer. Another favorite of our networking team is Internet Explorer’s ability to support ActiveX.

In my mind, Microsoft has to be a leading provider of PC accessories and software… Windows, Windows Live, Microsoft Office, PC hardware, and so on, and so on. Not to mention all their other fun projects like the Xbox, Zune, Bing, and the Windows Phone.

When I talked to the Web design half of the office, I discovered they mostly favored Mozilla Firefox, with the exception of one loyal Google Chrome advocate. Keystone’s Interactive Designer, Jamie Holland, believes Firefox is best because, “It displays webpages more accurately than others, it has 3^rd party extensions that help me do my job better, it also gives me the false feeling that it’s a safer way to browse.” Like Jamie, most of our web guys prefer Firefox because of its speed and third-party extensions. The third-party extensions, or add-ons, provide all sorts of advantages such as blocking advertisements, helping download videos, and speeding up flash downloads. One of our favorites is Rank Checker, a very helpful SEO tool. Another smaller, but still helpful, feature (that one Keystone employee pointed out) is Firefox’s spell check available anywhere within the Browser. If you’re a Mac user you’ll be used to this, but for others who have never experienced spell check outside Word, it will blow your mind.

Keystone’s overall opinions are pretty close to the market share hierarchy worldwide: IE is first with 60% market share, then Firefox with about 25%, and Chrome comes in third with 7%. Some other Browsers that you might know well in the top ten include Safari, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla, and Opera. Check them all out here.